#smolyar

POURCHAIRE SHOWS HIS CLASS

Sauber Junior Driver Theo Pourchaire was in a class of his own as he saw off the challenge from the PREMA cars to win the F3 Feature Race at the Hungaroring.

A dramatic start to the race saw Logan Sargeant go for it into turn one and lose the back of his car on the damp surface, half spinning into the side of pole sitter Alex Smolyar, damaging his PREMA and eliminating the ART of Smolyar.

Behind them, Calan Williams was tipped into a spin by Bent Viscaal, his Jenzer spinning across the track and collecting Frederik Vesti and Olli Caldwell, eliminating Williams and Vesti, as Caldwell limped back to the pit lane.

Consequently the Safety Car came out but racing promptly resumed on lap three with Pourchaire leading the field.

It wasn’t long until there was more drama, with Liam Lawson’s Hitech car dumping oil out of the back of it down the pit straight and all the way through to turn two. This caught out Sebastian Fernandez, Bent Viscaal and Max Fewtrell, who all ran wide on the slippery oil with Fewtrell losing a position to Richard Verschoor in the process.

Lawson’s car dramatically caught fire on the run to turn two and he retired there, initially bringing out the Safety Car, and then the red flags as the circuit needed repairing.

Lirim Zendeli and Jack Doohan retired under the red flags after contact with each other, but after a Safety Car restart racing resumed on lap nine and the stewards were immediately busy.

Olli Caldwell, Jake Hughes, Roman Stanek, Matteo Nannini and Enzo Fittipaldi all being sent to the pit lane for penalties for Safety Car infringements.

Lap 11 nearly saw Sebastian Fernandez bin it into the wall on the pit straight as his car got lairy coming out of the final corner. He then started to struggle as the track dried out, losing out to both MP Motorsport cars, including a ballsy move from Richard Verschoor into turn one.

Max Fewtrell also started to fall backwards, dropping back from seventh to eleventh complaining about a steering issue with his car. No such problems for Pourchaire who extended his lead lap by lap over Oscar Piastri who couldn’t touch the Frenchman, eventually ending with a winning margin of just over 11 seconds at the flag.

Bent Viscaal stole P4 from Richard Verschoor on the final lap with a great move around the outside of turn two which turn to the inside line through turn three, while further back Clement Novalak gained 17 positions to finish in P9 for Carlin.

RACE RESULT

POURCHAIRE PIASTRI SARGEANT

VISCAAL VERSCHOOR FERNANDEZ PERONI HAUGER NOVALAK BECKMANN

FEWTRELL DUNNER MALVESTITI AHMED FRAGA SCHUMACHER DAS FLOERSCH FITTIPALDI DELEDDA CALDWELL NANNINI STANEK HUGHES

ZENDELI - DNF LAWSON - DNF DOOHAN - DNF SMOLYAR - DNF VESTI - DNF WILLIAMS - DNF