Home Featured Pasma takes Evans GP’s first Asian F3 win at Dubai Autodrome

Pasma takes Evans GP’s first Asian F3 win at Dubai Autodrome

by Ida Wood

Photo: F3 Asian Championship

Patrik Pasma claimed his and Evans GP’s first win in Asian Formula 3 in the second race of the February round at Dubai Autodrome.

As a result of setting fastest lap in race one, Mumbai Falcons’ Kush Maini started race two from pole and had Pasma alongside him on the front row.

The Finn challenged for the lead from the off, and the top two pulled away by a significant margin the opening laps.

Their battle was brought back to the rest of the field on lap three when the safety car was called out as a result of Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema’s Amna Al Qubaisi spinning and then stalling in the middle of the track.

Maini kept his lead on the restart, with Hitech GP’s Roy Nissany following in third after he passed Pinnacle Motorsport’s Pierre-Louis Chovet and Prema’s Guanyu Zhou on the opening lap as they battled.

Pasma went for the outside and then inside of the first corner on the next lap, not able to pass Maini but compromising him through the next corners and getting his overtake for the lead done there. Nissany tried to follow through a few corners later but instead slid into Maini and spun him around, before then spinning himself.

The pair’s cars both came to a stop, while Motorscape’s Roberto Faria and Hitech’s Ayumu Iwasa went to the pits after their battle further back got too close, and a second safety car period was required.

This time there was no resumption of racing, and Pasma led home Zhou and Chovet on the podium.

Prema’s David Vidales, who had passed Faria and Iwasa before they pitted, ended up in fourth ahead of Hitech’s Roman Stanek and Reece Ushijima, but was then penalised five seconds post-race and dropped those two, Evans GP’s F3 rookie Alex Connor, BlackArts Racing trio Lorenzo Fluxa, Cem Bolukbasi and Rafael Villagomez and Pinnacle’s Alessio Deledda.

Maini’s team-mate Jehan Daruvala started fifth but dropped to the back on the opening lap and could only recover to 12th.

Race results (11 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Patrik Pasma Evans GP 30m55.672s
2 Guanyu Zhou Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema +0.679s
3 Pierre-Louis Chovet Pinnacle Motorsport +1.354s
4 Roman Stanek Hitech GP +2.204s
5 Reece Ushijima Hitech GP +2.760s
6 Alex Connor Evans GP +3.302s
7 Lorenzo Fluxa BlackArts Racing +3.628s
8 Cem Bolukbasi BlackArts Racing +4.190s
9 Rafael Villagomez BlackArts Racing +5.006s
10 Alessio Deledda Pinnacle Motorsport +5.626s
11 David Vidales Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema +6.929s
12 Jehan Daruvala Mumbai Falcons +9.133s
13 Alexandre Bardinon Pinnacle Motorsport +9.891s
14 Irina Sidorkova Evans GP +10.187s
15 Khaled Al Qubaisi Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema +11.420s
16 Nicola Marinangeli Motorscape +11.851s
Ret Kush Maini Mumbai Falcons
Ret Roy Nissany Hitech GP
Ret Roberto Faria Motorscape
Ret Ayumu Iwasa Hitech GP
Ret Amna Al Qubaisi Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema
Fastest lap: Maini, 1m57.998s

Championship standings
1 Chovet 196   2 Zhou 177   3 Daruvala 156   4 Isack Hadjar 96   5 Dino Beganovic 88   6 Iwasa 73   7 Pasma 70   8 Nissany 67   9 Bolukbasi 49   10 Stanek 48