O’Sullivan leads Prema 1-2 in FIA F3’s Hungaroring feature race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Zak O’Sullivan claimed a lights-to-flag victory ahead of Prema team-mate Dino Beganovic in FIA Formula 3’s feature race at the Hungaroring.

The race was initially scheduled to last 24 laps, but on Saturday it was shortened to 19 laps due to concerns over tyre durability.

Starting from pole, O’Sullivan kept the race under control after to comfortably take his fourth win of 2023. Beganovic followed from the beginning to the end without ever being a threat to O’Sullivan’s lead, which was up to five seconds with two laps to go.

MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto completed the podium after overtaking Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli, who had started third, halfway through the race.

Despite several fights, all the top 10 drivers held on to their starting position at the end of lap one. Behind them, Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti moved up two places from 13th on the grid, and soon gained another spot on ART Grand Prix’s Nikola Tsolov to get inside the points-scoring places.

At the front, O’Sullivan opened a two-second gap over Beganovic, who was also over two seconds ahead of Fornaroli.

On lap eight, Colapinto took advantage of Fornaroli’s lack of pace and overtook him. Oliver Goethe also drove past his Trident team-mate, who dropped one more place to Prema’s Paul Aron two laps later.

Marti continued to progress with strong pace and no sign of tyre degradation. On lap 13, he passed Trident’s championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto for seventh place and moved ahead of Fornaroli the following lap. Fornaroli continued to suffer and also dropped behind his team-mate.

Further down the top 10 there were four drivers doing battle. MP’s Jonny Edgar passed Campos’s Christian Mansell for ninth place and went on to overtake Fornaroli with one lap to go. Mansell then lost the last point to Edgar’s team-mate Mari Boya, who had previously overtaken Hitech GP’s Luke Browning.

Race result (19 laps)