Round 9 of the 2024 Formula 3 championship saw the series head to the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit for the penultimate round of the season.
Finlay McSporran
Published: 15:58, 29th July 2024
With mixed weather conditions, a new winner and the drivers championship in the balance there was plenty of action across the whole weekend, beginning with qualifying.
Qualifying
The big story on Friday was the traffic, and how it cot many drivers out. Despite being the longest track on the calendar, drivers found themselves queuing up to start their lap, with many unable to get to the line in time to start their final flying lap. Amid the confusion, reigning GB3 champion Callum Voisin set a time of 2:04.321 which was good enough for pole, with McLaren junior Alex Dunne qualifying second.
Formula Regional driver Tuka Taponen made his F3 debut this weekend driving for ART. He qualified P13, missing out on reverse grid pole by just 0.022 seconds!
The Prema pair of Dino Beganovic and Gabrielle Mini qualified 12th and 11th respectively and would start the sprint race on the front row.
Sprint Race
The sprint race would get underway on a damp track, with championship leader Mini taking the lead on lap 1 from teammate Beganovic. There was a crash at the top of Eau Rouge for Max Esterson, the Jenzer driver losing control of the car in the damp conditions and bringing out the safety car.
Racing would get back underway on lap 3 as Beganovic used the slipstream down the Kemmel straight to blast past Mini and back into the race lead.
Further back and Arvid Lindblad was making his way back up the order after a difficult qualifying, climbing up the order from 27th to 12th by lap 10. Another driver on a charge was Noel Leon, the Mexican had gone from 7th to 4th and was now lining up a move on Tim Tramnitz for 3rd, passing him on the last lap to take the final spot on the podium.
Out in front, Dino Beganovic crossed the line to win for the second time this season, taking home crucial points to keep himself in the championship fight, while his teammate Gabrielle Mini claimed second to extend his lead in the standings.
Feature Race
Pole-sitter Voisin would get a good start allowing him to lead into turn 1, while a good start for Sebastian Montoya saw get passed Fornaroli and Dunne for P2.
There was big drama behind them as championship leader Mini was tagged by Oliver Goethe, dropping him right to the back of the field and giving the rest of the grid a chance to reduce his points advantage.
The safety car was deployed on lap 2 to recover Martinius Stenshorne, the McLaren junior had a spin at Stavelot and was collected by Tuka Taponen, who was having his own separate incident and spun straight into the path of Stenshorne’s stricken Hitech.
Voisin would nail the restart to retain the lead as we got back to racing on lap 7, however the safety car was out once again following a collision between Joseph Loake and Sophia Floersch at the hairpin, which left the Alpine junior stranded in the gravel and out of the race.
By lap 10 the green flags were flying once again with Lindblad making his way back up the order as he did on Saturday, however his race would be cut short as he was spun round at the Hairpin by Christian Mansell, joining Floersch at the side of the track as the safety car was out once again.
Voisin would nail the restart once again and this time there would be no more incidents allowing him to cruise home to a brilliant maiden win in Formula 3.
A great drive from Montoya saw him cross the line in second for his first podium of the season, while Leonardo Fornaroli came home in 3rd as he takes the lead of the drivers championship with his 6th podium of the season.
It was also a great race for Prema, kind off, as they were crowned teams champions of 2024 despite none of their drivers finishing in the points.
Championship Outlook
As mentioned earlier, Fornaroli now leads the drivers standings thanks to his P3 in the feature race with 129 points to his name, just one ahead of Mini in second with 128, with Luke Browning in 3rd on 123. A tough weekend for Arvid Lindblad sees him drop down to 4th with 113 points to his name, while Dino Beganovic rounds out the top 5 on 100 points.
Next Up – The drivers and teams now head into the summer break for a well deserved rest before the series returns for the final round at Monza on September 1st, with 7 drivers still in mathematical contention to be the Formula 3 champion of 2024.
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