Leonardo Pulcini gives Hitech double FIA F3 win at Silverstone

SILVERSTONE, UNITED KINGDOM – JULY 12: Leonardo Pulcini (ITA, Hitech Grand Prix) during the Silverstone at Silverstone on July 12, 2019 in Silverstone, United Kingdom. (Photo by Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship)

Leonardo Pulcini charged from fifth on the grid to take his first FIA Formula 3 win in race two at Silverstone, clinching a double victory for local team Hitech.

While Liam Lawson held the lead at the start from reversed-grid pole, Pulcini got past Robert Shwartzman in the early corners and took third from Christian Lundgaard on the outside of Vale at the end of the opening lap.

Lawson?s lead was one second over Pedro Piquet at the end of the first tour but had both the Brazilian and Pulcini on his tail soon afterwards.

Pulcini made the first move, getting past Piquet on the run to Stowe on lap five of 20.

Within a couple of laps, Lawson was defending the inside from Pulcini, who eventually got by for the lead with a superb move into Brooklands, sweeping around the outside under braking.

As Lawson continued to defend, Pulcini was able to pull away to victory, his advantage as high as 4.3 seconds with five laps to go.

With Piquet continually unable to find a way past Lawson, Shwartzman came through to finish second, having cleared Lundgaard when the ART driver ran wide and off-track exiting Becketts for the second time.

Shwartzman got past Piquet on the run to Stowe with six laps to go and then passed Lawson at the same point a lap later, finishing 2.6s behind Pulcini.

Piquet finally managed to get alongside Lawson on the penultimate lap on the outside through Stowe and on the inside into Vale, but Lawson brilliantly held on, getting to the apex at Club first.

As they battled, Jehan Daruvala – who had taken the championship lead from team-mate Shwartzman on Saturday – put his nose inside Piquet at Club but the two made contact front wing to rear-right tyre, sending Piquet into a spin with an instant puncture. Daruvala also went no further, recording his first non-score of the season.

Shwartzman, therefore, moves back into the championship lead by 12 points after also setting the fastest lap.

Marcus Armstrong cleared Lundgaard late on to get fourth, while David Beckmann scored his first points since race one at Paul Ricard with sixth.

Race one winner Juri Vips was another title contender out of the points after an eventful race.

Contact as he fought his Prema-run rivals put him off the road at Brooklands on lap one and down to 11th, but he recovered to challenge Beckmann for eighth into Abbey on lap 14. But on the outside, he went well wide and into the gravel, letting HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes back past him.

Vips went on to attack Hughes again three laps later at Vale where the two collided, sending Hughes off the road and out of the race with damage. Vips ended up 13th and could face a penalty for the incident.

His fellow Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda delivered another fine race performance to get seventh ahead of Fabio Scherer and Lirim Zendeli, thanks in part to a double pass on Yifei Ye and Felipe Drugovich in the arena section.

Race results (20 laps)