F3: Zane Maloney wins second Sunday race in a row

Zane Maloney wins second Sunday Formula 3 race in a row. After making his Spa debut last week, the Barbados rider finished first at Zandvoort. Together with him, the new leader of the individual classification, Victor Martin and Franco Colapinto, climbed the podium.

On Sunday morning, the racers were greeted by a radiant sun. Polesitter Zane Maloney didn’t get off to a strong start and lost the lead at the exit of the first corner, missing Victor Marten.

In the battle for fourth place, Franco Colapinto was ahead of Roman Stanek. Championship leader Isaac Hajjar remained sixth. Sebastian Montoya dropped to ninth place, behind Johnny Edgar and Chao Collet. One of the title contenders, Oliver Berman, lost his place and fell back to 17th position. Alexander Smolyar won back the positions and climbed to 13th place.

On the fourth lap, yellow flags appeared on the track and the safety car took off. Brad Benavidez crashed from behind William Alatalo in Turn 2 for 20th both on the gravel and retired.

The restart was given in the eighth round. Marten held onto the lead, Jack Crawford tried to overtake Maloney for second, but went off track in turn one and dropped back to ninth. Sebastian Montoya was ahead of Johnny Edgar and Alexander Smolyar was ahead of Juan Manuel Correa.

On lap twelfth, Maloney made a successful attack on Marten in the first corner and regained the lead in the race. At the back of the battle for eighth place, Jack Crawford overtook Johnny Edgar. On the fourteenth lap, Jack won another position and overtook Montoya.

On lap seventeen, yellow flags appeared on the track again and virtual safety car mode was turned on. The reason was the retirement of David Vidales, who had to stop the car in the safety zone of the second corner due to technical problems.

After a lap a real safety car drove onto the track. This time it was necessary to remove from the track a fragment of the nose cone of the car of Greugar Sosi, who had misjudged the distance to Zach O’Sullivan and crashed into him from behind.

The race continued on lap twenty-first. In the top ten everyone kept their position and in the battle for eleventh place Berman was ahead of Smolyar. On lap twenty-two, Correa hit the rear right wheel of Rafael Villagomez’s car at turn one, sending his opponent into a u-turn. Rafael got stuck in the gravel – the safety car left the track for the third time.

The restart got two laps before the finish. In the top ten, the riders held their positions and Smolyar overtook Zach O’Sullivan, who was ahead of Berman for the yellow flags. On the final lap Crawford passed Collet to move up to sixth.

Zane Maloney drove the race to victory and kept the best lap of the race. Victor Marten’s second place allowed him to take the lead in the individual standings, five points ahead of Isaac Hadjar, who finished fifth. The third race was finished by Franco Colapinto, who did not allow Stanek to get closer to the attacking distance. Stanek, in turn, climbed to third place in the championship.

The final round of the Formula 3 season will take place next week in Monza, Italy.