Tramnitz keeps it cool at Imola to win safety car-filled FIA F3 sprint race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz won a safety car-disrupted FIA Formula 3 sprint race at Imola after overtaking his team-mate Bruno del Pino early on.

The Red Bull junior had attempted to pass the Spaniard at the beginning of the race, but rookie del Pino held on to first place having started from reversed-grid pole. However, the DRS effect made it impossible for him to continue to keep Tramnitz behind and he had to settle for second place.

Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov inherited third from his team-mate Mari Boya, who lost power at the restart after the first safety car period, but never really had a chance to threaten the top two.

Del Pino defended the inside line under braking both at the Tamburello and the Villeneuve chicane, holding off an aggressive Tramnitz. Further down the order, Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp overtook his team-mate Roman Bilinski for seventh place.

The DRS helped Tramnitz to drive past del Pino on lap three as they headed down to turn one. Ugo Ugochukwu overtook Prema team-mate Noel Leon, and Sharp passed both to move up to fifth.

The safety car was deployed on lap five of 18 as AIX Racing’s Nicola Marinangelli had to park up his car. The rim of his rear-right tyre had started to delaminate, and the Italian lost the tyre at the exit of the Tosa hairpin.

Racing resumed on lap nine, and Tsolov moved up to third as Boya suffered from mechanical gremlins, dropped down the order and retired at the end of the lap.

Green flag conditions did not last long though, as DAMS’ Matias Zagazeta had ended up in the gravel trap at Tamburello in an incident with Rodin’s Callum Voisin that earned the latter a 10-second penalty for causing a collision.

Tramnitz tried to break away after the two-lap safety car period. He did not manage to put del Pino out of his DRS range, but the gap was enough for not being under pressure in the next laps.

On lap 14, Bilinski made a pass for sixth and went on to attack Ugochukwu, who made a mistake and ran wide at Acque Minerali that allowed his rival by.

A brave move into the Tosa hairpin from ART Grand Prix’s Tukka Taponen on the same lap caught Leon by surprise. The Mexican ran off the track at the exit of the corner and dropped to ninth.

Trident’s Noah Stromsted went on a late charge, climbing from ninth to sixth and setting the fastest lap as MP’s Alessandro Giusti claimed the last point in 10th place. That meant Trident’s championship leader Rafael Camara did not score, but he starts on pole for the feature race.

Race results (18 laps)