Oliver Berman’s first career win ended Saturday’s Formula 3 race in Belgium. Together with him, Roman Stanek and Alexander Smolyar climbed the podium.
At the start, pole holder Zach O’Sullivan held onto the lead but was successfully attacked on the straight before Turn 5 by Juan Manuel Correa. However, there was contact between the front-runners as early as Turn 6, taking advantage of Brad Benavidez to take the lead. Correa and O’Sullivan got flat tires and went to the pits.
Championship leaders Isaac Hadjar and Victor Marten, who started outside the top 20, moved up to 18th and 16th place respectively on the first lap.
On the second lap yellow flags appeared and the safety car came onto the track. The reason was the departure of Christian Mansell to the gravel after contact with Rafael Villagomez. Rafael was later given a 10-second penalty for his maneuver. For these events, the leader changed again in the race – Oliver Berman was ahead of Benavidez.
The safety car left the track at the end of lap five. At the restart, Berman confidently maintained first place and behind him Edgar, who was given a five-second time penalty for contacting Franco Colapinto, overtook Benavidez in the battle for second place.
On lap six there was a serious collision between Oliver Goethe and Zane Maloney at Turn 17. The speed at the time of the incident was so high that Maloney’s car rolled in the air after colliding with a protective barrier made of scrap tires. Fortunately, with the help of marshals, both racers got out of the wrecked cars and left the accident scene on their own.
The safety car came onto the track for the second time and on the eighth lap of fifteen the race was stopped by red flags as it took time to restore the protective barrier. The peloton returned to the pits to expect the race to resume.
The intermission lasted almost thirty minutes. At 11:30 a.m. local time, the racers returned to the track for the safety car, which entered the pit lane after one lap and was given the restart.
Berman held the lead, Benavidez tried to overtake Edgar in the battle for second place, and Roman Stanek – Alexander Smolyar in the battle for fourth place, but the attempts were unsuccessful. Victor Marten drove into the pit lane to serve a fine – he drove through the pit lane for a false start.
On the 11th lap, Benavidez lost two positions and dropped to fifth – Brad in turn was overtaken by Smolyar and Stanek. Joddy Edgar showed the best lap in an attempt to break away from rivals. On lap thirteen, Stanek moved up to third and overtook Smolyar on the straight for Turn 5.
Oliver Berman took the race to the first win of his career. Edgar finished second, but after a five-second penalty, he dropped to fourth. So, in the final protocol, Roman Stanek climbed to second place, and Alexander Smolyar to third place.
Isaac Hadjar, who started 23rd, broke through to eighth place and became the sole leader of the individual standings. His main rival, Victor Martin, finished twenty-second.
Results are being prepared
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
