FIA Formula 3 served up yet another all-time classic race as Bent Viscaal took his first win in F3 with a pass at the very last corner on Lirim Zendeli.
Viscaal, in his MP Motorsport machine, spent the whole race less than a second from the German and made his move on the last lap. He dove under the Trident at Copse to take the lead but Zendeli returned the favour at Stowe.
They were side-by-side going into the last sequence of corners but Zendeli went in too deep and Viscaal swept around the outside at Club to take the most dramatic of victories.
It was a huge credit to both drivers as they kept the racing completely clean despite both chasing their first F3 wins on the last lap.
The two of them were the class of the field as they finished over eight seconds clear of a huge pack of cars down to ninth position that was headed by Théo Pourchaire after a resolute defensive drive for much of the race.
He spent almost all race driving in his mirrors as a swarm of F3 cars tried to find a way past but none could do so as David Beckmann pulled off a last corner move of his own to beat Liam Lawson to fourth by just two hundredths of a second.
Lawson had earlier been involved in contact at the same corner with Oscar Piastri which saw the Australian come off worse losing a place to Jake Hughes. Piastri was able to regain sixth place from the Brit on the final lap but won’t be happy with the incident that could have ended his race.
His fellow PREMA teammate Frederik Vesti was the car in Piastri’s mirrors for much of the race but the Dane kept it civil and as a result couldn’t find a way past, finishing eighth behind Hughes.
We were all quite envious of Clément Novalak who had the best seat in the house to witness the chaos ahead of him as he latched onto the train for third, but he was unable to make inroads and finished ninth along with his big bag of popcorn.
Some ten seconds back, another, even larger, train of cars were in battle as Cameron Das defended for the final point. He was eventually broken as Enzo Fittipaldi made the move and secured tenth with few laps remaining.
Saturday’s race winner and new championship leader Logan Sargeant didn’t have such luck however as he was forced to retire following contact with Das.
Sargeant now leads Piastri by just one point in the standings as the series heads to Catalunya in a weeks time.
Pos. | Name | Team | Laps/Gap |
1 | Bent Viscaal | MP Motorsport | 20 Laps |
2 | Lirim Zendeli | Trident | +0.189 |
3 | Théo Pourchaire | ART | +8.395 |
4 | David Beckmann | Trident | +8.829 |
5 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | +8.848 |
6 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | +9.226 |
7 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | +10.742 |
8 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | +10.966 |
9 | Clément Novalak | Carlin Buzz Racing | +11.501 |
10 | Enzo Fittipaldi | HWA Racelab | +21.346 |
11 | Igor Fraga | Charouz | +22.833 |
12 | Cameron Das | Carlin Buzz Racing | +23.898 |
13 | Max Fewtrell | Hitech GP | +23.937 |
14 | Sebastián Fernández | ART | +24.043 |
15 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART | +24.918 |
16 | Roman Stanek | Charouz | +25.441 |
17 | Matteo Nannini | Jenzer | +26.007 |
18 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +26.362 |
19 | Sophia Floersch | Campos | +26.718 |
20 | Dennis Hauger | Hitech GP | +27.176 |
21 | Jack Doohan | HWA Racelab | +27.791 |
22 | Olli Caldwell | Trident | +28.002 |
23 | Federico Malvestiti | Jenzer | +28.132 |
24 | Alex Peroni | Campos | +60.615 |
25 | Ben Barnicoat | Carlin Buzz Racing | DNF (Mechanical) |
26 | Logan Sargeant | PREMA | DNF (Contact) |
27 | Alessio Deledda | Campos | DNF (Mechanical) |
28 | David Schumacher | Charouz | DNF (Mechanical) |
29 | Lukas Dunner | MP Motorsport | DNF (Contact) |
30 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | DNF (Contact) |