Victor Martins Takes Maiden Formula 3 Victory At Zandvoort

MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins has added a FIA Formula 3 victory to his already decorated CV which includes a Formula Renault title, the Frenchman rose four places to beat the Trident of Clémant Novalek and the ART of Frederik Vesti.

Novalek had been at the front of the race for most of it, after getting a better start than pole-sitter Ido Cohen, but the Frenchman’s tyres began to wear heavily towards the end of the race and was unable to hold old on, his fellow countryman passing him for the lead with the aid of the DRS. Despite finishing in third place Fred Vesti would fall to fourth in the drivers standings.

Neither Jack Doohan or Dennis Hauger scored points after championship leader was taken out of the race after a collision with Ido Cohen, Doohan making what could prove to be a costly mistake being unable to capitalise on Hauger’s misfortune sliding into the gravel trap on the last lap.

Off the start it was Olli Caldwell and Jack Doohan who would lose places, Caldwell losing a further place to Martins just before the safety car was brought out due to the Campos of Lorenzo Columbos suffering a puncture leading to the Italian taking a unwanted trip into the barrier by no fault of his own.

Frederik Vesti was looking to overtake Ido Cohen immediately after the Safety Car restart but really should have been paying more attention to his mirrors, the Frenchman capitalising on the Dane’s error overtaking him at the exit of turn 1.

After being in Novalak’s DRS range for so long once the Frenchman pulled out of range it left Cohen as a ‘sitting duck’ to Victor Martins who himself had use of DRS, it woudl get worse for the Carlin rookie as Vesti overtook him one lap later knocking Cohen off the podium.

After pulling away from Cohen enough so that the Carlin driver did not have DRS Martins wasted no time in getting to work on Novalak passing his fellow countryman on the main straight before taking the fastest lap for good measure. However, the race was far from done, Amaury Cordeel beached his Campos in the gravel bringing out another safety car, with now only two laps of racing left, Cohen and Hauger collided at the top of the banking leaving them both out of contention. Jack Doohan then beached his car into the gravel, no doubt to the relief of Dennis Hauger. David Schumacher would steal fifth place from Olli Caldwell, the German finishing one place behind Martin’s team-mate Caio Collet who came home in fourth.

Full Zandvoort FIA Formula 3 Race 2 Results