O’Sullivan beats Browning to win Barcelona F3 sprint race

Photo: Prema

Prema’s Zak O’Sullivan resisted early pressure from fellow Williams junior Luke Browning for his second FIA Formula 3 sprint race win at Barcelona.

O’Sullivan held off Hitech GP’s Browning and Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli in a three-lap dash to the chequered flag following a late safety car period.

Browning challenged reversed-grid polesitter O’Sullivan off the line before slotting into second at turn one, while Fornaroli passed ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy for third.

Prema’s Paul Aron gained two places to sixth, and MP Motorsport’s Mari Boya slipped from fifth to eighth after losing out to Sebastian Montoya and Gabriel Bortoleto through turns seven and eight.

The safety car was deployed at the end of lap one after Rodin Carlin’s Ido Cohen crashed into the barriers at turn nine following contact with Rafael Villagomez, who was forced to pit for a new front wing.

O’Sullivan immediately built a one-second advantage once racing resumed on lap five of 21, but Browning gradually closed to within 0.3 seconds.

On lap 10 Browning used his DRS to mount a challenge, with O’Sullivan defending the inside into turn one. Browning had another good run down the pit straight next time by, looking to the inside of O’Sullivan who held onto the lead on the outside.

O’Sullivan gradually pulled out more than a second advantage over the next few laps, with Fornaroli keeping pace with Browning, while there was plenty of action behind.

Saucy ran wide out of the final turn, losing fourth to Aron, and then ran wide again as he tried to fight back and lost further places to Montoya and Bortoleto. Montoya then suffered a puncture after contact with Aron, with Bortoleto capitalising to move into fourth. 

Prema’s Dino Beganovic locked up while running 10th, running off the track and retiring and promoting feature race poleman Pepe Marti into the points. Running just behind, his Campos Racing team-mate Christian Mansell and Gabriele Mini made contact at turn two, with Mansell ending up in the gravel and Mini being penalised 10s for the incident.

That triggered a second safety car period, with the green flags waved with three laps to go. Browning was forced to defend immediately at the restart from Fornaroli, but held onto second into turn one.

The order remained the same until the finish, with O’Sullivan coming home 1.6s clear of Browning, who scored his first F3 podium, with Fornaroli a further 0.6s behind.

Bortoleto retained fourth ahead of Aron, with MP’s Franco Colapinto climbing from 10th to sixth. Boya came home seventh ahead of Marti, while Saucy slipped back to ninth ahead of Jenzer Motorsport’s Taylor Barnard, who will start alongside Marti on the front row tomorrow. 

Race result (21 laps)