Photo: F3 Americas
Benjamin Pedersen dominated the Formula 3 Americas season finale at Sebring.
It was a lights-to-flag win from pole for Pedersen in race one, with Jacob Abel battling already crowned champion Dakota Dickerson for second.
Dickerson eventually fell down the order with a wounded car, and Pedersen established himself over Abel and Mathias Soler-Obel.
For race two, drivers were given an additional sighting lap due to a wet circuit. From the front row, Pedersen jumped Abel, but couldn’t pull away. Abel attempted to pass Pedersen on the outside of Turn 7, but instead spun and retired.
The race finished under yellow, with Pederson leading Dickerson and John Paul Southern Jr.
Pedersen made another lightning start in race three and leapt from third to first. Abel couldn’t consistently match the leader and found himself under pressure from Soler-Obel, who then hit trouble and had to retire.
Victory secured Pedersen second in the standings despite missing six races. Dickerson ended up beating Abel to second in the race. Kent Vaccaro and debutants James Raven and Danny van Dongen all missed race three after earlier retirements.
In US F4, racing action was interrupted within minutes by a full course yellow after Guilherme Peixoto span off at Turn 1.
When the race continued, Joshua Car and Kiko Porto went side-by-side, with Arthur Leist not far behind. Car looked the strongest and worked his way past poleman Jose Blanco-Chock for the lead.
Blanco-Chock responded by setting fastest lap and reclaiming first place, before another FCY interruption. The restart wasn’t easy for Blanco-Chock, but he held on to beat Car by 0.448 seconds. Porto finished third, a further second back.
Car and Blanco-Chock disputed the lead again in race two until a sudden rain shower. FCY periods were called twice, in between which Car dropped to fourth and Christian Brooks took over at the front.
The race ended under yellow, with Brooks beating Blanco-Chock and Dylan Tavella to victory. Car took his first non-podium finish of the season in fourth, but became champion.
Wanting a podium return, Car attacked immediately in race three. He and Brooks jumped poleman Blanco-Chock, who fell to fifth but rebounded to join a podium battle with Porto, Brooks and Tavella.
Another FCY didn’t halt Car, but set up a super-close finish behind. Porto beat Blanco-Chock to second by 0.028s, and Peixoto by 0.031s. From last on the grid, Leist finished fifth.
Results round-up?[pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]
| Formula 3 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (16 laps) | Race 2 (13 laps) | Race 3 (18 laps) |
| 1 Benjamin Pedersen 37m40.339s 2 Jacob Abel +0.577s 3 Mathias Soler-Obel +5.550s 4 John Paul Southern Jr +5.814s 5 Dakota Dickerson +5.958s |
1 Pedersen 31m13.179s 2 Dickerson +0.555s 3 Southern +2.695s 4 Soler-Obel +4.274s 5 James Roe Jr +4.664s |
1 Pedersen 36m53.983s 2 Dickerson +2.339s 3 Abel +3.113s 4 Southern +18.204s 5 Roe +34.593s |
| Standings?1 Dickerson 269? ?2 Pedersen 221? ?3 Soler-Obel 161? ?4 Abel 155? ?5 James Roe Jr 147 | ||
| Formula 4 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (11 laps) | Race 2 (7 laps) | Race 3 (12 laps) |
| 1 Jose Blanco-Chock 30m01.594s 2 Joshua Car +0.448s 3 Kiko Porto +1.433s 4 Christian Brooks +2.736s 5 Arthur Leist +3.957s |
1 Brooks 24m45.296s 2 Blanco-Chock +1.051s 3 Dylan Tavella +2.506s 4 Car +4.867s 5 James Goughary +7.280s |
1 Car 32m35.762s 2 Porto +4.016s 3 Blanco-Chock +4.044s 4 Guilherme Peixoto +4.047s 5 Leist +4.376s |
| Standings?1 Car 297? ?2 Porto 210? ?3 Brooks 173? ?4 Blanco-Chock 158? ?5 Leist 146 | ||