Doohan wins wet second FIA F3 race at Spa

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Jack Doohan claimed a lights-to-flag win in the FIA Formula 3 Championship’s second race of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Australian driver survived a safety car restart to take his second victory ahead of David Schumacher in second and Logan Sargeant in third.

It was another race with changing conditions at Spa which started one hour later than scheduled, but unlike in this morning’s race, this time the delay was caused by a red flag during the Formula 1 qualifying which altered the timetable for the rest of the day.

Despite the track being wet, the safety car wasn’t needed at the start as the sun was shining and the track was drying.

Trident driver Doohan led the way after lap one ahead of his team mate Schumacher, who also held on to his grid position.

Things weren’t that calm behind Trident’s duo. A great start by Charouz’s Sargeant provided a three-wide moment going into La Source, which ended with ART Grand Prix’s Alex Smolyar running wide and dropping five places.

In the middle of the field, Prema’s team mates Arthur Leclerc and Dennis Hauger gained some places to introduce themselves into the top 10. In the process, Leclerc made contact with Jonathan Hoggard while trying to pass him around the outside at Pouhon.

The Monegasque driver was able to continue without losing positions, but the Jenzer Motorsport ace wasn’t that lucky and spun round, dropping to the back of the pack.

The virtual safety car was deployed on lap 10 to recover Matteo Nannini’s car, who stalled after spinning around in the last corner. Difficulties moving the HWA forced race direction to deploy the safety car, as the rain began to come down again.

The race was restarted with four laps to go, but the green flag didn’t last long.

Amaury Cordeel hit the barriers at the top of Raidillon and was collected by Calan Williams, bringing out the safety car again and with it the end of the race.

The points positions were completed by Caio Collet in fourth, Clement Novalak in fifth, Frederik Vesti in sixth, Victor Martins in seventh, Smolyar in eighth, Hauger in ninth and Leclerc in 10th.

Race one winner Lorenzo Colombo wasn’t able to replicate this morning’s performance, and finished down in 14th place after losing several places in the opening lap.

Race results (16 laps)