Giovinazzi secures race three victory at Spa

Photo: Stephane Ratel Organization

Antonio Giovinazzi prevailed in fending off continuous pressure from Carlin’s Jann Mardenborough to take his second victory in the British F3 series in the closing race of the Spa round.

Nicholas Latifi started the race from pole, but, in very wet conditions, Giovinazzi had a dazzling getaway from the line and found himself leading in the very beginning of the opening lap. Mardenborough slotted into second and, after the race leader managed to build up a small safety gap in the early stages, started making up ground to the Italian.

The Briton had a very good shot at his first victory in F3 but, as the gap reached around half-a-second, he spun and lost lots of ground to Giovinazzi, who proceeded to calmly take the car to the checkered flag. Mardenborough finished second, whilst his teammates Latifi and Jordan King were embroiled in a fight for third until the very last lap, when the latter managed to take the position, making it three podium appearances out of a possible three this weekend.

Felipe Guimaraes enjoyed a rather lonely race to take fourth, while Tatiana Calderon inherited fifth after her teammate Sean Gelael hit trouble in the latter stages of the race. Fortec’s championship leader Will Buller only managed sixth, his race undone an early drive through penalty after his team failed to cease working on the car in time for the 30-second warning. Gelael himself recovered to eighth place.

In the National class, Sun Zheng took another victory with Jordan Oon and Chris Vlok finishing after him.

Mardenborough has incurred a five-place grid penalty for the opening race of round three after he had a collision with Giovinazzi’s vehicle on the pit-in lap.

Race results