Browning returns to the FIA F3 lead with Austria feature race win

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Luke Browning reclaimed the FIA Formula 3 Championship lead with victory in the Red Bull Ring feature race.

The Williams junior resisted pressure from Dino Beganovic to convert pole position into his second win of 2024. The battle for second in the closing laps allowed him to pull out of DRS range and he finished 1.6 seconds clear of Gabriele Mini.

Beganovic took second early on and was able to stick with the race leader. However, he never had much of a gap to Prema team-mate Mini and, when racing resumed after a brief virtual safety car period, he came under pressure from behind.

Beganovic was briefly able to close back in on Hitech GP driver Browning, but he could not find a way past. He slipped back into an intense battle with Mini and ART Grand Prix’s Christian Mansell, allowing Browning to escape up the road.

The battle for second continued to the chequered flag. Beganovic and Mini swapped places multiple times, with Mansell also able to get alongside the duo. Mini came through on the final lap to take the position, and Beganovic held off Mansell to finish on the podium.

Throughout the battle, Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe and MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne were never far behind. They finished fifth and sixth on-track, but an eventful race for Dunne meant he was classified 10th.

He had climbed up from ninth on the grid into the lead fight. Along the way, he made contact with Prema’s Arvid Lindblad, who started second but could not keep pace with the race leaders. The contact resulted in a time penalty for Dunne while Lindblad continued to slip down the order. He would be classified seventh, behind ART GP’s Nikola Tsolov.

Dunne was not the only driver in the top 10 to be penalised. Tim Tramnitz crossed the line just behind Lindblad, but was classified 15th following a penalty for an early incident. He had been battling Campos’s Sebastian Montoya when the two came together, damaging Montoya’s car. He was able to make it to the pits but retired. 

His team-mate Mari Boya and AIX Racing’s Nikita Bedrin also had a coming together, causing Bedrin to spin over the kerbs and retire. Bedrin’s stranded car was the cause of the VSC period, and Boya was penalised.

With timings corrected, it was Laurens van Hoepen who took eighth (and also gained the fastest lap point by finishing in the top 10) ahead of pre-race points leader Leonardo Fornaroli, who climbed up from 24th on the grid.

Race results (26 laps)