Roman Stanek takes his first Formula 3 win

The first win of Roman Stanek’s career came at the end of Sunday’s Formula 3 race at Imola. Along with the Trident rider, two riders from the Red Bull youth program, Jack Crawford and Isaac Hajjar, took the podium.

The track in Imola was wet after a night of rain, so for the start some riders opted for wet tires, some – slicks. At the start, pole positioner Zane Maloney held the lead, although at one point it looked like Stanek, who had a fine start, could be ahead of his partner.

On the first lap, Chao Collet, who started ninth on wet tires, passed his rivals without any problem and climbed to first place. Alexander Smolyar, who also started the race on wet tires, moved up to third on lap two.

On the second lap, the safety car entered the track through a U-turn by Francesco Pizzi. Collet, Colapinto, Smolyar, Villagomez, Usijima and Benavidez took advantage of this to switch to slicks.

Before the restart, which was given on the fifth lap, the top five looked as follows: Maloney, Stanek, Berman, Marty and Yini. Collet dropped to 21st, Colapinto to 24th, Smolyar to 25th.

At the restart Jose Maria Marti did the best and stayed on wet tires. The Campos rider climbed up to 2nd place and halfway through the lap he overtook Maloney without any problems and led the pack. Behind Hunter, Yeeney moved up to 3rd. Oliver Rasmusen returned to the pits due to rear suspension issues.

On the seventh lap the track was dry enough that the wet tires stopped working. Maloney took advantage of this immediately and re-took the lead by overtaking Marty. At the end of the lap, Marty and Yini went to the pits for slicks and behind the leaders Ben Benavidez crashed into the wall, triggering a second safety car exit.

The race resumed on lap ten, but a few corners before the restart, Maloney, who was in the lead, flew off the track when the tires got warm and dropped out of the race! At the restart, Oliver Berman passed Roman Stanek in the battle for first place. The safety car returned to the track for a third time, so the marshals cleared Maloney’s car, which was stuck on the curb.

The race resumed on the 13th lap of 24, the leaders holding their positions. Oliver Berman immediately tried to get ahead of the pack and showed the best lap. On lap seventeen, Arthur Leclerc overtook Kaylen Frederik for 8th place. Stanek reacted to Berman’s best lap and narrowed the lead to a second.

Arthur Leclerc continued his push to the top and advanced to lap six on lap 20, overtaking O’Sullivan and Maini. At the same time, Jack Crawford stopped Grégoire Sosi’s attacks in the battle for third place.

With three laps to go, Stanek caught up with Berman and started attacking the Prema rider at almost every corner in the battle for the lead. As a result, Roman’s efforts were crowned with success, and with two laps to go he was leading the race. On the final lap, Berman lost another position, passing Jack Crawford into second.

Grégoire Saucy made his attempt to overtake Berman into the seventeenth corner of the final lap, and almost succeeded, but Oliver lost control of the car on the curb and collided with Saucy. Isaac Hadjar took advantage of this and came in third place. Berman finished fourth and Grégoire Saucy’s car reversed and that was the end of the race for him.

Roman Stanek took the race to victory, finishing Crawford by more than half a second. Alexander Smolyar finished in the same position where he started – fifteenth. The third round of the Formula 3 season will take place in Barcelona from May 20-22.