Photo: FIA F3 Media Service
Felie Drugovich dominated in the third May Isolation Dallara F3 Esports round at Interlagos, which featured fellow Brazilian and Formula 1 legend Rubens Barrichello.
The 60-car grid was split into three five-lap heats of 17 drivers, with the top 10 of each qualifying for the 10-lap feature race, and the next best 10 of each going into a consolation race where the top five also made it into the feature.
Drugovich dominated his heat from pole, which started with Mahaveer Raghunathan catapulting himself into retirement at Turn 1.
Sandy Mitchell spun from the front row, leaving Barrichello’s son Eduardo and Ginetta racer Josh Malin to fill the podium behind Drugovich. Junior karters Kacper Sztuka and Robert De Haan were fourth and fifth.
Heat two was similarly dominated by Nico Varrone, with pre-event points leader Muhammad Ibrahim beating Richard Verschoor to second. Former F1 driver Will Stevens came fourth, ahead of ex-IndyCar driver Jack Hawksworth and GT racer Adam Christodoulou.
Dani Juncadella had more competition from pole in his heat, racing side-by-side with Phillippe Denes throughout and only just beating him to victory.
DTM-bound Ed Jones was a close third, while the battle for fourth was literally flipped on its head on the penultimate lap when James Pull got loose out of Turn 1 and Harry Tincknell ended up catapulting over the barrier into the pit exit lane.
Ramez Azzam and Raoul Hyman were fourth and fifth as a result, and Barrichello Sr came home sixth.
Cameron Das pipped Alex Connor to consolation race victory. Polish talent Mateusz Kaprzyk, Yves Baltas and former Formula V8 3.5 racer Aleix Alcaraz also made it through.
Drugovich started from pole for the feature, and was once again a comfortable winner. Juncadella and Barrichello Jr made themselves his closest opposition by passing Varrone at the start, and the top three became isolated when two huge crashes occurred at the start of lap two.
The first involved Hugo de Sadeleer and took place over the timing beam, with the next being caused by Denes passing Varrone into Turn 3 before cutting across and being mounted by the Argentinian. The drivers immediately behind had nowhere to go and hit them, before Ibrahim ploughed through at speed and spread the crash debris.
Stevens and Azzam came through undamaged first, with Mitchell already on their tail from 25th on the grid. Barrichello Sr also rose up the order, albeit with front wing damage, to 10th place.
The race settled down after that, with Barrichello Jr passing Juncadella on lap six and setting off in pursuit of the leader. Drugovich had it in hand though, and moved into the points lead with victory.
Juncadella was a lonely third, and GT driver Mitchell made a great move to claim fourth over Stevens. DTM driver Ferdinand Habsburg almost lost sixth as the finish to 27th placed starter Prescott Campbell. Connor, Mazda MX-5 racer Kian Donaldson and Das rounded out the points.
Azzam faded to 11th ahead of 48-year-old Barrichello Sr, while Ibrahim recovered to 15th.
