Meguetounif wins as F3 feature race goes awry for Trident team-mates

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Sami Meguetounif claimed victory in FIA Formula 3’s feature race at Imola after overtaking Oliver Goethe in a late charge.

Despite starting from pole, Trident’s Santiago Ramos struggled for most of the race and scored just four points by finishing eighth. Meanwhile, team-mate and local star Leonardo Fornaroli made the podium in third after being hindered by a technical issue.

All three of Trident’s drivers enjoyed a good getaway and held on to their starting positions. Behind them, it was Goethe who made the moves. The Campos Racing driver gained two places from seventh on the grid, then moved up to fourth by passing Prema’s Arvid Lindblad. Hitech GP’s Luke Browning also climbed two positions to be seventh at the end of lap one. Conversely, Prema’s Gabriele Mini was slow off the line and fell from sixth to 11th place.

Fornaroli took the lead of the race from Ramos heading into the Tamburello chicane on lap three of 22, while Goethe passed Meguetounif to end Trident’s monopoly on the podium positions. The Red Bull junior continued his charge, taking second from Ramos on lap five.

One lap later he was in the lead as Fornaroli slowed down on the main straight with a technical issue and dropped to fifth before he could return to racing speed.

Fornaroli was then on a mission to recover the ground lost. He drove past Lindblad after several laps of battling and then passed Ramos, who had been overtaken by Meguetounif a few laps before.

Meguetounif’s reminder from his engineer to “drive smooth” early on in the race paid off, as the Frenchman closed the gap on Goethe and overtook him on lap 18. He then broke away up front, leaving Goethe to hold off Fornaroli for second.

Ramos visibly struggled for grip halfway through the race and lost fourth place to Browning, who had previously overtaken Prema duo Dino Beganovic and Lindblad. As the race progressed, Lindblad joined Ramos in starting to drop backwards and by lap 15 they were seventh and eighth.

Further down the order, Campos’s Mari Boya and Sebastian Montoya charged through the field. Boya climbed from 27th to ninth, and Montoya rose from 24th to 11th. He then picked up the last point for 10th place when Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne was penalised.

Race results (22 laps)