Tsolov battles past Slater to win F3 sprint race in Bahrain

Photo: Red Bull

Nikola Tsolov prevailed in a thrilling scrap with Freddie Slater to take a record-equalling fourth FIA Formula 3 victory in Saturday’s sprint race at Sakhir.

Campos Racing’s Tsolov climbed from fifth and resisted a late safety car restart to win by 0.580 seconds ahead of AIX Racing’s Slater, who scored a podium on debut. ART Grand Prix’s Tuukka Taponen also scored a maiden podium in third.

There was drama as soon as the lights went out, with Trident’s points leader Rafael Camara stalling from 12th on the grid and plummeting to last.

Hitech GP’s Joshua Dufek converted reversed-grid pole into the lead ahead of team-mate Martinius Stenshorne and Slater. The trio went side-by-side on the run to turn four, with Slater wrestling second away from Stenshorne through the next two corners.

Slater snatched the lead from Dufek at the start of lap three, while Tsolov took third away from Stenshorne, and the safety car was deployed on the following lap after Ugo Ugochuwku retired following a collision with his Prema stablemate and fellow McLaren Formula 1 junior Brando Badoer.

The race resumed on lap seven and Slater continued to lead, while Tsolov made a good restart to sweep past Dufek into second.

Tsolov briefly took the lead into turn one on lap nine, but Slater made the better exit to immediately reclaim the advantage, while behind them Stenshorne and Taponen fought their was past Dufek.

The lead battle continued on the next lap, with Tsolov moving ahead twice into turns four and eight, only for Slater to fight back each time.

Tsolov finally made a move stick into turn one on lap 11, and he held a slender lead over Slater when the safety car was deployed again five laps later after Dufek clashed with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues at the first corner.

The safety car was withdrawn as the cars began their penultimate lap, and Tsolov was forced to defend several times from Slater, while Taponen took third away from Stenshorne before closing in on the lead duo.

Slater resisted the pressure from Taponen to reignite his challenge to Tsolov but, despite lining up a challenge at the final corner of the race, had to settle for second.

Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin climbed from 11th on the grid to make a late pass on Stenshorne for fourth, with Tim Tramnitz recovering from 13th to finish sixth ahead of MP Motorsport team-mate Alessandro Giusti.

DAMS driver Christian Ho was eighth ahead of Trident duo Charlie Wurz and Noah Stromsted.  Camara recovered to 12th behind Prema’s Noel Leon and continues to head the standings ahead of Sunday’s feature, which he still start from pole.

VAR duo Santiago Ramos and Theophile Nael, DAMS’s Niko Lacorte and AIX’s Nicola Marinangeli all retired with damage during the race.

Race results (19 laps)