Home Formula 3FIA F3 Championship Tsolov dominates at Red Bull Ring to close up FIA F3 title fight

Tsolov dominates at Red Bull Ring to close up FIA F3 title fight

by Jacob Awcock

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
1
Camara 115   2 Tsolov 114   3 Tramnitz 90   4 Stenshorne 60   5 Stromsted 60   6 Boya 55   7 Giusti 54   8 Taponen 51   9 Voisin 46   10 Ramos 45