F3 2020: Theo Pourchaire Wins Dramatic Styrian Race Two

16 year-old Theo Pourchaire emerged victorious in a dramatic second F3 Styrian race, following a late collision between Liam Lawson and Jake Hughes. 

Pourchaire briefly led the opening three laps before Lawson and Hughes got past with DRS on the back straight, triggering a race long tussle between the pair for victory which ended in a collision on lap 21. 

Hughes got DRS on run to turn four and decided to pass around the outside, only for Lawson to clip the inside kerb and slide into Hughes breaking their front left and right tyres respectively to bring out a safety car finish. 

Pourchaire managed to avoid the incident and breeze past to take a maiden F3 win from Logan Sargeant and David Beckmann, of who clinched his second third-placed finish of this weekend. 

Describing his shock victory as the youngest F3 winner, Pourchaire said; “To win the race is amazing.

“It is only my second round in Formula 3, and I would like to thank ART Grand Prix for their amazing work with the car.

Richard Verschoor, Oscar Piastri, Olli Caldwell, Max Fewtrell, Frederik Vesti, Sebastian Fernandez and Lirim Zendeli complete the top ten point scoring finishers.

Embed from Getty Images

Pourchaire made a great start to race into the lead ahead of Hughes, who made a slow getaway from reverse pole as Alex Peroni twice ran wide on the opening lap further down the order at turns one and three. 

Hughes had the French teenager reeled in by lap four and as he went towards the outside line of turn four. Lawson dived down the middle of the pair to take the lead, of which Hughes claimed at the same corner on the next lap. 

Clement Novalak had an airborne moment on lap six when he got launched over the kerb on lap six, luckily continuing after a successful inspection in the pits. 

Lawson meanwhile continued to battle Hughes and reclaimed the lead on lap 11, with a lunge into turn four for the lead. 

Sophia Floersch triggered the first safety car a lap later when she got clipped by ART GP’s Aleksandr Smolyar to send her spinning out of the race, destroying the Rolex sponsored polystyrene in the process. 

Once racing restarted on lap 17, Hughes pushed Lawson all the way which resulted in a race ending collision as Hughes tried the outside line of turn four with stronger traction only for Lawson to clip inside kerb and slide into him to end their races. 

Pourchaire consequently inherited the lead which he held to the checkered flag in a safety car finish, to win from Sargeant and Beckmann. 

 

Results

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	24	38m 25.185
2	Logan Sargeant	Prema	24	+ 0.464
3	David Beckmann	Trident	24	+ 0.674
4	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	24	+ 1.102
5	Oscar Piastri	Prema	24	+ 1.805
6	Olli Caldwell	Trident	24	+ 1.876
7	Max Fewtrell	Hitech GP	24	+ 2.197
8	Frederik Vesti	Prema	24	+ 2.594
9	Sebastian Fernandez	ART GP	24	+ 3.017
10	Lirim Zendeli	Trident	24	+ 3.324
11	Alex Peroni	Campos	24	+ 3.662
12	Dennis Hauger	Hitech GP	24	+ 3.968
13	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA Racelab	24	+ 4.263
14	Igor Fraga	Charouz	24	+ 4.540
15	Enaam Ahmed	Carlin	24	+ 5.398
16	Bent Viscaal	MP Motorsport	24	+ 5.786
17	David Schumacher	Charouz	24	+ 6.412
18	Roman Stanek	Charouz	24	+ 6.592
19	Lukas Dunner	MP Motorsport	24	+8.379
20	Jack Doohan	HWA Racelab	24	+ 8.588
21	Aleksandr Smolyar	ART GP	24	+8.924
22	Alessio Deledda	Campos	24	+ 9.736
23	Frederico Malvestiti	Jenzer	24	+ 10.011
24	Calan Williams	Jenzer	24	+ 11.342
25	Clement Novalak	Carlin	23	+ 1 lap
26	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	20	Collision
27	Jake Hughes	HWA Racelab	20	Collision
28	Cameron Das	Carlin	20	Collision
29	Sophia Floersch	Campos	11	Collision
NC	Matteo Nannini	Jenzer		Engine