Domingues leads VAR 1-2 in FIA F3’s Barcelona sprint race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ivan Domingues led a Van Amersfoort Racing one-two in FIA Formula 3’s reversed-grid sprint race at Barcelona.

Rodin Motorsport’s Roman Bilinski started from pole, but was out of the race by the second corner as he collided with MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz and Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne.

Domingues passed Trident’s Noah Stromsted to be best placed to benefit from the crash at the front, and he soon led while ART Grand Prix’s Tuukka Taponen retired following contact with Trident’s points leader Rafael Camara.

As Camara hobbled back to the pits to also retire, the safety car was summoned and racing did not resume until lap six of 21.

ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen and VAR’s Santiago Ramos sat behind the top two for the restart, followed by Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing), James Wharton (ART GP), Theophile Nael (VAR), Noel Leon (Prema) and Bruno del Pino (MP Motorsport).

Wasting little time in making progress was MP’s Alessandro Giusti, who overtook Leon and del Pino at turn four while the top two pulled away.

The next overtake in the top half of the pack was on lap nine, as Ramos cleared van Hoepen for third. He and his team-mates were starting to struggle for pace, and Wharton would later lose out to Nael on lap 12.

Tsolov passed van Hoepen around the outside of turn one on lap 14, and Giusti shot past Wharton down the pit straight at the start of lap 15.

There was a place regained on lap 17, as Stromsted slowed from second place and headed to the pits to retire, before the descent continued.

Yellow flags waved on the final lap, and Domingues claimed his first F3 points and maiden single-seater victory by two seconds over team-mate Ramos.

Tsolov reduced Camara’s points lead in third, and his team-mate Mari Boya put in a charging drive to come seventh from 15th on the grid. He only gained one spot on lap one, and did not start making progress until the race’s second half.

He overtook Rodin’s Louis Sharp at turn three on lap 11, after team-mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak had opened the door with a diving turn one move, then overtook Inthraphuvasak a lap later.

On lap 16 he dived past del Pino at turn five and used DRS to clear Leon on the pit straight, and overtook Wharton on lap 17.

Leon lost a lot of ground late on but still scored a point in 10th behind Inthraphuvasak.

Race results (21 laps)