Stenshorne fends off Lindblad to win Melbourne F3 sprint race

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Martinius Stenshorne scored his first Formula 3 win in the Melbourne sprint race, resisting another charging drive through the order by fellow rookie Arvid Lindblad.

Reversed-grid pole-sitter Laurens van Hoepen finished third to join Lindblad in claiming a second sprint race podium from as many events.

ART Grand Prix driver Van Hoepen held onto the lead at the start followed by Hitech GP’s Stenshorne. Behind them, ART GP’s Christian Mansell also kept his starting position of third despite a slow getaway.

Further down the order, qualifying pacesetter Leonardo Fornaroli gained three places, getting ninth with a bold move around the outside of ART GP’s Nikola Tsolov heading into turn nine.

It was on lap three of 20 that Stenshorne kicked off his charge for the race win. The Norwegian took the lead from van Hoepen at turn nine, but the latter regained it soon after at turn 11. They traded the lead over the next three laps, helped by the DRS effect.

Lindblad drove past Mansell to move up to third on lap six, while the lead pair broke away. Two laps later, Lindblad had reduced the gap and drove past van Hoepen, who had lost contact with Stenshorne.

The safety car was deployed on lap 14 to clear the car of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. The PHM Racing driver had overtaken Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith and returned to the racing line when the Australian missed his braking point and rear-ending him. Smith was penalised 10 seconds.

Racing resumed at the end of lap 16, with Stenshorne accelerating already at turn 11. His strategy paid off as Lindlblad, who was closing on on him before the safety car, was then unable to challenge him for victory.

Campos Racing’s Mari Boya attempted a move on van Hoepen at turn nine with two laps to go. He could not complete it and was vulnerable to team-mate Oliver Goethe and Prema’s Gabriele Mini, but fended them off.

An unsuccessful overtake attempt on Goethe by Mini in the penultimate corner resulted in the latter losing the place to team-mate Dino Beganovic. However Beganovic was penalised five seconds for forcing off Campos’s Sebastian Montoya early on, and that dropped him from sixth to 13th.

PHM’s Nikita Bedrin was penalised 10s post-race for overtaking Montoya off-track, demoting him from eighth to 21st, and meaning the final points places went to MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, Montoya, Fornaroli and Mansell.

Championship leader Luke Browning headed into the pits on lap four with a mechanical issue, and finished a lap down.

Race results (20 laps)