Rain causes cancellation of FIA F3’s Spa feature race after two laps

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Wet conditions and two aborted starts resulted in the FIA Formula 3 Championship feature race at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday being abandoned after two laps.

Torrential rain caused chaos just as drivers commenced their formation lap behind the safety car.

AIX Racing’s James Hedley spun but was able to get going again at Eau Rouge, and Prema’s Brando Badoer stopped with suspension damage after rear-ending MP Motorsport’s title contender Tim Tramnitz on the Kemmel Straight.

That led to a red flag, and the field rejoined the circuit following a 30-minute delay. The race eventually got underway behind the safety car, and despite that Campos Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak still spun and became beached on a kerb.

Red flags were displayed once more, and officials announced that the race would not resume shortly after cars had returned to the pitlane. With just two laps completed, and both behind the safety car, it meant no points were awarded and the race was considered cancelled.

AIX Racing’s Brad Benavides would have been the winner of the non-championship encounter as he followed the safety car around from pole, with Trident’s Rafael Camara and Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin second and third. Camara leaves the weekend with a 28-point lead in the championship over Campos’s Nikola Tsolov, who was seventh in the queue of cars.

Roman Bilinski (Rodin), Martinius Stenshorne (Hitech GP) and Ugo Ugochukwu (Prema) were ahead of him.

Formula 2 had a race cancelled earlier this year in Melbourne due to wet conditions and it was not rescheduled, but fellow Formula 1 support series F1 Academy did get one of its race-cancelled races reorganised to take place at another round.

Race results (2 laps)