Home Featured Smolyar holds off Beckmann to take maiden FIA F3 victory at Silverstone

Smolyar holds off Beckmann to take maiden FIA F3 victory at Silverstone

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Alexander Smolyar resisted pressure from David Beckmann to take his maiden FIA Formula 3 victory at Silverstone as championship leader Oscar Piastri suffered his first retirement of the season.

Smolyar led from lights to flag, but had Beckmann for company throughout the 20-lap race.

The pole sitter built a gap of over a second in the first part of the race, only for a safety car midway through to bunch up the field again.

On the restart, Beckmann stuck with Smolyar and stayed within DRS range. He made a handful of moves on the ART Grand Prix driver but never felt as if he had the grip to go around the outside and couldn’t make a move stick.

Smolyar tried hard to break the tow, changing directions multiple times in an effort to shake Beckmann. The moves drew attention from the stewards, who will investigate after the race.

It was enough to keep Beckmann behind and Smolyar finished 0.7s ahead to take his first win of the season.

Beckmann had Clement Novalak on his tail throughout the race, meaning any wrong move would put him under pressure from the Carlin driver. But Novalak never got the opportunity to make a move and settled for third with Alex Peroni close behind in fourth.

Further back, Piastri was having a difficult race. The Prema driver started towards the back of the top 10, and a wide moment through the gravel sent him further back.

Piastri had only managed to make up a handful of positions to P15 when he came into the pits with DRS issues. This time the DRS had become stuck open, and with the team unable to fix the issue he was forced to retire.

This allowed his title rivals to close the gap at the top of the order. Logan Sargeant finished sixth, behind team-mate Frederick Vesti, with Liam Lawson holding off Theo Pourchaire to take seventh.

Richard Verschoor and Jake Hughes completed the top 10.

 

Race results (20 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Alexander Smolyar ART Grand Prix 39m09.312s
2 David Beckmann Trident +0.740s
3 Clement Novalak Carlin +1.166s
4 Alex Peroni Campos Racing +1.725s
5 Frederik Vesti Prema +2.240s
6 Logan Sargeant Prema +2.632s
7 Liam Lawson Hitech GP +6.448s
8 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix +6.991s
9 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport +7.601s
10 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab +7.889s
11 Lirim Zendeli Trident +8.358s
12 Ben Barnicoat Carlin +11.738s
13 Federico Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport +13.763s
14 Calan Williams Jenzer Motorsport +14.357s
15 David Schumacher Charouz Racing System +14.646s
16 Bent Viscaal MP Motorsport +17.334s
17 Dennis Hauger Hitech GP +18.592s
18 Roman Stanek Charouz Racing System +19.096s
19 Enzo Fittipaldi HWA Racelab +19.338s
20 Max Fewtrell Hitech GP +21.261s
21 Sophia Floersch Campos Racing +21.994s
22 Sebastian Fernandez ART Grand Prix +22.288s
23 Lukas Dunner MP Motorsport +22.863s
24 Matteo Nannini Jenzer Motorsport +23.364s
25 Cameron Das Carlin +25.996s
26 Olli Caldwell Trident +28.478s
27 Jack Doohan HWA Racelab +29.674s
28 Alessio Deledda Camps Racing +33.872s
Ret Oscar Piastri Prema
Ret Igor Fraga Charouz Racing System
Fastest lap: Sargeant, 1m45.968s

Championship standings
1 Piastri 94   2 Sargeant 76   3 Beckmann 61.5   4 Lawson 54   5 Vesti 53.5   6 Pourchaire 51   7 Verschoor 47   8 Peroni 40   9 Smolyar 30   10 Novalak 29