Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Jenzer Motorsport’s Nikita Bedrin took his first FIA Formula 3 podium in the Hungaroring sprint race. But the race had a bittersweet end for him.
He started second on the reversed grid and took the lead with a bold move around the outside of eventual winner Gabriele Mini. First place was his until lap eight of 19, when Mini moved back past.
Bedrin was still on to finish second. However, the safety car appeared on lap 13, eliminating his five-second gap to points leader Gabriel Bortoleto. He resisted Bortoleto at the restart, but after a further virtual safety car interruption with two laps remaining, Bortoleto drove past him at the final corner of the race.
Despite that, Bedrin was satisfied with third. His previous best result had been 10th place.
“It was not the best season so far, but we’ve done a lot of progress with the team and myself as well. We are quite happy to be on the podium,” Bedrin told media including Formula Scout.
“This is like my first experience fighting in the front with the guys. And it’s also different to manage the tyres at the front compared to the back. So it was a difficult race, but I’m still happy to finish on the podium. I think I’ve done a good job this race except maybe I could have done a few things different in the beginning, like pushing a little bit less.
“I didn’t really push much. I was driving with sense. I was not sliding anywhere. But with knowing how these tyres are and how this track is, it was extremely tricky. And after like lap eight, it was going worse and worse every lap. And especially after the last safety car, it was terrible. There was nothing left on them.
“I’m still satisfied that I stayed on the podium,” he added. “It was quite hard to keep [Bortoleto] behind because I knew also in the last corner, if he was behind me, he will probably get past me because I had absolutely no grip there. I’ve tried my best. I was just a bit pissed off with the safety car because it was first VSC and then went into safety car. But, still, a podium is a podium and it’s by far the best result for me. ”
During the lap 17 VSC interruption, Bortoleto thought the race was over. But it was not.
“I said ‘oh, no way that the race is going to be restarted’. So I just kept the margin to not go over the delta of the safety car. Suddenly they opened the radio and they said ‘VSC ending’ and I went in like ‘oh my god, what’s going on?’.
“I was like probably three seconds behind him, two-and-a-half. Then I said ‘okay, maybe I finish P3 now’, but then I started to catch him like crazy in all the corners. And I said ‘maybe we have a chance on the main straight or in the end of the sector’. And that’s what happened.”