Lindblad gets third F3 win of 2024 in delayed Silverstone sprint race

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Arvid Lindblad won the delayed FIA Formula 3 sprint race at Silverstone ahead of Noel Leon and Matias Zagazeta.

Lindblad took the lead on lap one and did not relinquish it throughout the 18-lap race, winning by more than six seconds.

Heavy rain meant the race could not start early in the morning as planned, and the nine hour delay meant by the time it began the track was dry and the weather clear.

Leon started on reversed-grid pole but Lindblad and Zagazeta immediately pulled alongside to make it three-wide going into the first corner. Lindblad was able to get through, with Leon keeping Zagazeta behind.

He had to fight to stay ahead thereon, which allowed Lindblad to pull away up front until lap four when the safety car appeared following an incident between Max Esterson and Oliver Goethe that sent both into the gravel and retirement.

Racing resumed on lap eight, but Leon could not stick with Lindblad. The leader again began to build a gap again and did not put a wheel wrong for his third win of 2024.

After the initial fight, Leon had a relatively trouble-free race to come home second, but Zagazeta was never able to shake the train of drivers behind him. 

Part of that train for most of the race was Charlie Wurz and Alex Dunne. Dunne had climbed through the order and was challenging Wurz for fourth when they made contact. Wurz was sent sideways in front of Dunne’s car, and continued to be pushed along by the McLaren junior until he came to a stop off track. Dunne was able to make it back to the pits then rejoined at the back of the field.

A virtual safety car period, the second of the race, was called to clear the incident. The first VSC came after contact between Santiago Ramos and Tommy Smith led to the carcass of Ramos’s rear-left tyre coming off and being left in a dangerous position.

There was more drama when points leader Luke Browning and Tim Tramnitz came together while battling just outside the top 10. Tramnitz’s front wing touched Browning’s front-left tyre, leaving him with a puncture that forced him to pit and drop to the back. Tramnitz also pitted for a new front wing.

After the incident between Dunne and Wurz, Callum Voisin moved up to fourth and kept the pressure on Zagazeta until the chequered flag for his first F3 points.

Christian Mansell, Nikola Tsolov and Gabriele Mini spent the final laps of the race battling for position, running side-by-side with one another. Mini and Tsolov almost touched at one point, but the three drivers emerged in tact, with Mansell leading Tsolov and Mini across the line. However a time penalty for track limits abuse dropped him from fifth to 11th.

Sebastian Montoya and Sami Meguetounif stayed close behind the trio to try to take advantage of any incidents, and Laurens van Hoepen joined the back of the train late on. After Mansell’s penalty was applied, Leonardo Fornaroli took the final point in 10th.

Race results (18 laps)