
Photo: Red Bull
Nikola Tsolov pulled off a dominant drive to take his third win of the FIA Formula 3 season in the Red Bull Ring feature race and reinvigorate the title fight.
The Campos Racing driver started from pole and by the end of lap two already two seconds clear of AIX Racing’s Brad Benavides in second place.
After qualifying a strong second, Benavides found himself being swallowed by the chasing pack with Trident’s Noah Stromsted the first to pass him into turn three and then Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu and Trident’s Rafael Camara following through.
Camara, who started seventh, had already gained two places from the slow-starting Bruno del Pino (MP Motorsport) and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Campos), and when he got up to Ugochukwu and Stromsted he passed them both in the same lap.
Once he was in second, there was no catching Tsolov though as his title rival gradually extended his gap and was three seconds ahead on lap 15 of 26.
Further back in the field, Tim Tramnitz was gaining places. The MP driver had started 17th, but had already made it up to fifth. In similar fashion, Hitech GP’s Martinius Stenshorne was moving quickly up the order after starting 15th.
With 10 laps to go, Camara’s attempts to reduce Tsolov’s gap seemed futile and he began to focus on the charging Stenshorne behind. Two laps later there less than a second between the pair, and with DRS assistance Stenshorne got through.
From there, Camara began to struggle. His tyres had fallen off a performance cliff around the Red Bull Ring’s high-speed bends and in the closing laps he found himself helpless as he dropped down to sixth.
Stenshorne also had no answer to Tsolov, who finished the race 6.6s ahead to close to within one point of championship leader Camara.
Tramnitz also made the podium, and Campos’s Mari Boya went on a charge too as he took the fastest lap in his drive from 14th up to fourth place.
Ugochukwu finished fifth, and behind Camara were his team-mates Charlie Wurz and Stromsted.
Race results (26 laps)
Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos Racing | 36m40.308s |
2 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | +6.646s |
3 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | +8.721s |
4 | Mari Boya | Campos Racing | +9.104s |
5 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | +10.737s |
6 | Rafael Camara | Trident | +12.539s |
7 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | +13.875s |
8 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | +16.521s |
9 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | +16.747s |
10 | Callum Voisin | Rodin Motorsport | +17.326s |
11 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | +18.034s |
12 | Theophile Nael | Van Amersfoort Racing | +18.472s |
13 | Noel Leon | Prema | +19.295s |
14 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | +19.961s |
15 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | Hitech GP | +20.423s |
16 | James Wharton | ART Grand Prix | +21.453s |
17 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos Racing | +21.827s |
18 | Louis Sharp | Rodin Motorsport | +22.242s |
19 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech GP | +22.966s |
20 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | +23.488s |
21 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | +23.762s |
22 | Tuukka Taponen | ART Grand Prix | +24.420s |
23 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | +24.488s |
24 | Nikita Johnson | DAMS | +24.927s |
25 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin Motorsport | +26.008s |
26 | Christian Ho | DAMS | +26.571s |
27 | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | +44.023s |
28 | James Hedley | AIX Racing | +44.418s |
29 | Santiago Ramos | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1m06.419s |
Ret | Brando Badoer | Prema | |
Fastest lap: Boya, 1m22.963s
Championship standings |