Felipe Drugovich seals Spanish F3 title with victory at Barcelona

Photo: Fotospeedy

Felipe Drugovich added the Spanish Formula 3 title to his Euroformula Open championship success in the first race at Barcelona.

Campos Racing’s Marcos Siebert took pole, and held off RP Motorsport driver Drugovich at the start. An early safety car caused by Javier Gonzalez spinning off the circuit meant Siebert had several laps pressure free, and only just held off Drugovich at the restart.

Down the pit straight he defended aggressively, with Drugovich almost taking to the grass on the right, and he looked to have kept the lead before Drugovich executed a perfectly judged move around the outside of Turn 4, making up for the mistake at the same corner that cost him victory on his debut last year.

His lead was also hampered by a safety car period, this time due to a clash between Aldo Festante and Dev Gore, but once the cars were released again the Brazilian was dominant. He finished the race with almost five seconds in hand, with Siebert coming under later pressure from Bent Viscaal.

Drugovich’s team-mate David Schumacher initially held third place, having overtaken Matheus Iorio for the position on the first lap, and looked comfortable there for much of the race. The latter safety car enabled Viscaal to close up on him though, and once he had been overtaken there was little chance of an overall podium for the German.

The battle for fifth lasted most of the race, with a four car train led by Iorio. There was little in overtaking, but the closeness of which Iorio, Carlin team-mate Cameron Das, RP’s Guilherme Samaia and Drivex School’s Lukas Dunner ran belied the downforce dependence of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Single-seater debutant Brad Benavides pulled off an assured overtake to finish ninth for Campos Racing, with fellow EF Open rookie Patrick Schott completing the top 10.

Kaylen Frederick and Italian F2000 Trophy champion Alessandro Bracalente were the final two finishers.

Race results (19 laps)