Noel León took a maiden F3 victory during a chaotic sprint race

Finlay McSporran
Published: 15:04, 18th May 2024

The Mexican driver won the race after some last drama

Race Start

Pole sitter Kacper Sztuka got away well as León tucked into the slipstream, taking the lead into the first corner as Sztuka continued to struggle, being passed by Tim Tramnitz and Oliver Goethe.

Further back, contact for Mari Boya sent the Campos into the gravel, bringing out the safety car.

Mid Race

The race would resume on lap 4 with León leading comfortably for Tramnitz. The safety car was back out shortly however, as Callum Voisin made contact with Charlie Wurz, sending him into the barriers and out of the race, bring out the safety car once again.

Racing would get back underway on lap 8, for a few corners as Sami Meguetounif made contact with the Prema of Dino Beganovic, sending him into the gravel and bringing out another safety car.

The safety car came in on lap 11 with León maintaining the lead and extending his lead over Tramnitz in second, who was now coming under pressure from Goethe who used DRS to pass him on lap 13.

On lap 15 Dino Beganovic passed Sztuka for 4th with two laps to go. Championship leader Luke Browning tried to follow through to get into 5th, however he made contact with the polish driver which damaged his front wing and sent him into the gravel and bring out the virtual safety car.

Last Lap

Goethe took advantage of the virtual safety car ending as passed León to take the lead on the final lap and looked set to take another F3 victory. However a penalty for him and Tramnitz for a prior Safety Car infringement left both with a five-second time penalty.

Goethe crossed the line in first however his penalty demoted him to 2nd, allowing León to take a maiden F3 victory.

Race Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Noel Leon	Van Amersfoort Racing	34m20.094s
2	Oliver Goethe	Campos Racing	+4.660s
3	Tim Tramnitz	MP Motorsport	+6.818s
4	Dino Beganovic	Prema	+7.926s
5	Kacper Sztuka	MP Motorsport	+8.472s
6	Gabriele Mini	Prema	+9.064s
7	Laurens van Hoepen	ART Grand Prix	+9.455s
8	Arvid Lindblad	Prema	+9.928s
9	Nikita Bedrin	AIX Racing	+10.489s
10	Santiago Ramos	Trident	+10.847s
11	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident	+11.336s
12	Christian Mansell	ART Grand Prix	+12.012s
13	Nikola Tsolov	ART Grand Prix	+12.610s
14	Alex Dunne	MP Motorsport	+13.639s
15	Sophia Floersch	Van Amersfoort Racing	+14.118s
16	Joshua Dufek	AIX Racing	+15.160s
17	Matias Zagazeta	Jenzer Motorsport	+18.278s
18	Max Esterson	Jenzer Motorsport	+18.523s
19	Cian Shields	Hitech GP	+18.885s
20	Piotr Wisnicki	Rodin Motorsport	+19.201s
21	Joseph Loake	Rodin Motorsport	+19.700s
22	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech GP	+20.340s
23	Charlie Wurz	Jenzer Motorsport	+24.683s
24	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort Racing	+30.520s
25	Sebastian Montoya	Campos Racing	+33.475s
26	Luke Browning	Hitech GP	+2 laps
Ret	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	AIX Racing
Ret	Sami Meguetounif	Trident
Ret	Callum Voisin	Rodin Motorsport
Ret	Mari Boya	Campos Racing
Fastest lap: Goethe, 1m33.596s Championship standings: 1 Browning 37   2 Fornaroli 37   3 Mini 37   4 Beganovic 35   5 Tramnitz 29   6 Lindblad 26   7 van Hoepen 22   8 Goethe 21   9 Mansell 20   10 Boya 17

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Edit:

Goethe’s penalty has been removed following a post-race review by the FIA, meaning that he takes P1 with Leon in 2nd