Jack Doohan, Joey Alders, and Yu Kanamaru each took a win in a chaotic Asian Formula 3 weekend at Dubai Autodrome.
Red Bull junior Doohan’s race one win came despite clashing with reigning champion Ukyo Sasahara and earning a five-second penalty.
Hitech GP’s Sasahara led almost the entire race, with Doohan never far behind.
It wasn?t until the final lap that the Pinnacle Motorsport driver challenged, and the pair ran side-by-side until the final sector, where Doohan clattered over a kerb and they collided.
Doohan continued to the chequered flag with a large gap to BlackArts Racing’s Alders in second, enough to negate the penalty. Sasahara’s car was too damaged and he retired.
Sebastian Fernandez marked his debut appearance with Pinnacle by finishing third, having battled down the order early on with Absolute Racing’s Jamie Chadwick.
Devlin DeFrancesco (Absolute) spent the second half of the race battling to stay ahead of Jake Hughes (Hitech), Chadwick and Pietro Fittipaldi (Pinnacle).
Heavy rain on Friday morning meant drivers faced standing water and a stream on track in race two.
Alders snatched the lead after Hughes ran wide on lap one, and from there had a comfortable margin over Fernandez, who stormed into third on lap one and passed Hughes for second in the race’s second half.
Hughes slipped backwards late on, falling behind Mazepin and Doohan. Mazepin put up a good fight, but Doohan managed to squeeze past three corners before the finish to claim third.
The only crash came when Fittipaldi clipped the back of Sasahara’s car, knocking off his own front wing.
Lead pair Hughes and Doohan collided in race three, with Doohan spinning out and Hughes dropping behind Mazepin.
BlackArts’ Kanamaru, who started ninth, had climbed his way up through the order and soon passed the struggling Hughes.
He closed in on and passed Mazepin too, then stretched out an astonishing 23.598s lead in short time for his first single-seater win since Euroformula Open in 2015.
Mazepin then battled with Sasahara, and while he finished ahead he was penalised and demoted to sixth.
Sasahara – ineligible for points – therefore claimed second ahead of Alders, now with a 37-points lead, and Fernandez.
Results round-up
Race 1 (16 laps)
1 Jack Doohan Pinnacle Motorsport 31m33.281s
2 Joey Alders BlackArts Racing +1.912s
3 Sebastian Fernandez Pinnacle Motorsport +2.144s
4 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP +6.241s
5 Devlin DeFrancesco Absolute Racing +11.828s
6 Jamie Chadwick Absolute Racing +13.257s
7 Pietro Fittipaldi Pinnacle Motorsport +14.070s
8 Tommy Smith Absolute Racing +14.924s
9 Yu Kanamaru BlackArts Racing +15.629s
10 Amaury Cordeel MP Motorsport +26.891s
Pole: Ukyo Sasahara, 1m53.232s
Fastest lap: Jake Hughes, 1m55.854s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Alders 27m28.388s
2 Fernandez +3.640s
3 Doohan +14.053s
4 Mazepin +14.359s
5 Jake Hughes Hitech GP +16.724s
6 DeFrancesco +43.387s
7 Cordeel +43.626s
8 James Yu Zen Motorsport +44.489s
9 Tatiana Calderon Seven GP +45.940s
10 Kanamaru +47.881s
FL: Doohan, 2m13.534s
Race 3 (16 laps)
1 Kanamaru 31m51.395s
2 Ukyo Sasahara Hitech GP +23.598s
3 Alders +24.653s
4 Fernandez +24.752s
5 DeFrancesco +25.019s
6 Mazepin +28.078s
7 Fittipaldi +28.421s
8 Chadwick +28.731s
9 Calderon +30.104s
10 Cordeel +32.160s
P: Sasahara, 1m52.837s
FL: Alders, 1m56.286s
Championship standings
1 Alders 126? ?2 Doohan 89? ?3 Mazepin 74? ?4 DeFrancesco 65? ?5 Fernandez 48? ?6?Kanamaru 47? ?7?Daniel Cao 31? ?8 Yu 28? ?9?Chadwick 26? ?10?Calderon 23