Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Rafael Camara made it back-to-back feature race win to start the FIA Formula 3 season with his second victory of the year in Bahrain.
The Trident driver fell behind Callum Voisin on the opening lap but fought back to reclaim the race lead. Once ahead, Camara escaped down the road and finished the 22 lap race over six seconds clear of Voisin.
In the first laps of the race, the top three drivers broke away from the rest of the field. Voisin took the race lead on the inside of the first corner, and Charlie Wurz briefly challenged Camara for second. Camara kept Wurz behind him and the top three had a decent gap to the rest of the field when the virtual safety car was activated on lap four.
Not long after the track turned green again, Camara moved back ahead of Voisin at the first corner.
Camara soon pulled out of DRS range of Voisin and had a trouble free run to the line. The second half of Voisin’s race was equally uneventful, and he finished comfortably ahead of the battle for third.
Wurz came under pressure first from Tuukka Taponen. He was able to resist the Ferrari junior’s first attack, but Taponen soon found a way through. Wurz initially fought back, but gradually slipped back down the order as more drivers joined the fight at the front.
The first of these was Tim Tramnitz, who passed Wurz for fourth and brought the fight to Taponen. After starting 13th, he moved up into third where he stayed until the chequered flag.
Nikola Tsolov closed in on Taponen late on and tried to find a way past, but Taponen held onto fourth. Noah Stromsted took sixth ahead of Alessandro Giusti and Mari Boya.
Boya had fought his way forward from 20th on the grid, and joined a multi-car battle for the final points paying positions late on. Boya, Bruno del Pino, Christian Ho and Wurz all scrambled for position in the closing laps. Boya came through from the back of the group to win the fight. Del Pino pipped Ho to the flag, while Wurz finished just outside the top 10.
Race results (22 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Trident | 42m05.006s |
| 2 | Callum Voisin | Rodin Motorsport | +6.211s |
| 3 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | +7.884s |
| 4 | Tuukka Taponen | ART Grand Prix | +10.693s |
| 5 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos Racing | +11.031s |
| 6 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | +14.143s |
| 7 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | +14.457s |
| 8 | Mari Boya | Campos Racing | +17.258s |
| 9 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | +18.289s |
| 10 | Christian Ho | DAMS | +18.361s |
| 11 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | +19.310s |
| 12 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | +29.307s |
| 13 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin Motorsport | +30.450s |
| 14 | Santiago Ramos | Van Amersfoort Racing | +31.352s |
| 15 | Theophile Nael | Van Amersfoort Racing | +32.423s |
| 16 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos Racing | +33.366s |
| 17 | Noel Leon | Prema | +35.793s |
| 18 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | +39.525s |
| 19 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | +39.885s |
| 20 | Niko Lacorte | DAMS | +41.181s |
| 21 | Brando Badoer | Prema | +41.997s |
| 23 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech GP | +46.434s |
| 24 | Louis Sharp | Rodin Motorsport | +46.989s |
| 22 | Javier Sagrera | AIX Racing | +47.779s |
| 25 | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | +49.536s |
| 26 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech GP | +50.373s |
| 27 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | +1m10.118s |
| 28 | James Wharton | ART Grand Prix | +1m25.190s |
| 29 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | +1m29.943s |
| Ret | Freddie Slater | AIX Racing | |
| Fastest lap: Camara, 1m52.931s
Championship standings |
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