David Beckmann snatched a dramatic maiden F3 victory after Bent Viscaal served a 10 second time penalty, despite taking the checkered flag first in a thrilling Hungarian Race Two.
Beckmann initially struggled in the damp conditions having lost the lead to Dennis Hauger then a rapid Bent Viscaal, of whom collected two sets of five second time penalties and looked set to take victory until a late safety car ruined Viscaal’s chances of the win.
Beckmann consequently inherited the win once the 10s penalty was applied to the timings, with Oscar Piastri and Hauger rounding out the podium.
Speaking post race on his dramatic victory in bizarre circumstances, Beckmann described the race as “intense” before admitting that he is “really happy with the win and I think that we made the best out of the situation.”
Embed from Getty ImagesBeckmann made a clean start to lead from Hauger as Clement Novalak made a poor start, to eventually cling onto third in the opening laps from Logan Sargeant.
Hauger however would snatch the lead with a clean outside move on Beckmann around turn two, before Viscaal collided with Igor Fraga to send the Brazilian spinning out with damage as the Dutchman incurred his first time penalty.
Beckmann soon set about chasing down Hauger until the safety car was deployed on lap eight, after Liam Lawson once again stopped with an engine issue and it was eventually Hauger who kept his lead on the safety car restart on lap 10.
Viscaal was rapid upon the restart as he quickly passed MP Motorsport teammate, Richard Verschoor and then Prema’s Logan Sargeant for fourth, eventually clinching third from Novalak with an inside move in the final corner at end of the lap.
Novalak soon slid out of the points as he struggled with the wet tyres as Sargeant and Piastri soon past him on lap 11, beginning a downward spiral to eventually finish 12th as the second highest placed Brit behind Max Fewtrell in 11th.
Back out at the front, Viscaal got Beckmann with an outside move into the first corner on lap 13 before taking the lead from Hauger with a strong entry into the final corner.
Viscaal however soon found himself under investigation again for passing Sargeant whilst off track, which forced Viscaal into a furious charge to build a 10s gap in case of another penalty, which ultimately was served his way by the stewards.
Beckmann however had passed Hauger on lap 17 on exit of turn one after a brief banging of his front left tyre with the Danish driver’s rear right, which gave the German enough traction to make the move for second.
Beckmann kept the gap around 6.5 seconds which proved enough for victory after Frederico crashed on lap 20 to bring out the safety car, wiping out Viscaal’s gap to give Beckmann victory from Piastri and Hauger.
Sargeant, Verschoor, Theo Pourchaire, Aleksandr Smolyar, Sebastian Fernandez, Enzo Fittipaldi and Alex Peroni rounded out the top ten, with Smolyar having gained 20 places from 27th on grid to finish seventh.
Viscaal slid to 17th position once the 10s time penalty was applied despite taking the checkered flag under a safety car finish.
In the drivers’ championship, Piastri now lead Sargeant by 26 points after taking two points for fastest lap of a 1m 50.721 set on lap 19, with Pourchaire still third by just half a point from Beckmann as Verschoor rounds out the top five.
Update: Jack Doohan received a 20s post race time penalty for contact with Vesti, dropping him down from 24th to 25th position.
Results
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | David Beckmann | Trident | 22 | 43m 54.224 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | 22 | + 1.026 |
| 3 | Dennis Hauger | Hitech GP | 22 | + 1.522 |
| 4 | Logan Sargeant | Prema | 22 | + 1.975 |
| 5 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 22 | + 2.497 |
| 6 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 22 | + 2.724 |
| 7 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | 22 | + 3.220 |
| 8 | Sebastian Fernandez | ART GP | 22 | + 3.594 |
| 9 | Enzo Fittipaldi | HWA Racelab | 22 | + 3.939 |
| 10 | Alex Peroni | Campos | 22 | + 4.665 |
| 11 | Max Fewtrell | Hitech GP | 22 | + 5.558 |
| 12 | Clement Novalak | Carlin | 22 | + 5.911 |
| 13 | David Schumacher | Charouz | 22 | + 6.351 |
| 14 | Sophia Floersch | Campos | 22 | + 7.584 |
| 15 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | 22 | + 8.158 |
| 16 | Lirim Zendeli | Trident | 22 | + 9.253 |
| 17 | Bent Viscaal | MP Motorsport | 22 | + 9.377 |
| 18 | Olli Caldwell | Trident | 22 | + 10.023 |
| 19 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | 22 | + 11.385 |
| 20 | Roman Stanek | Charouz | 22 | + 12.231 |
| 21 | Enaam Ahmed | Carlin | 22 | + 24.654 |
| 22 | Cameron Das | Carlin | 22 | + 49.970 |
| 23 | Alessio Deledda | Campos | 22 | + 51.050 |
| 24 | Matteo Nannini | Jenzer | 21 | + 1m 51.752 |
| 25 | Jack Doohan | HWA Racelab | 22 | + 1 Lap |
| 26 | Frederico Malvestiti | Jenzer | 19 | + 3 Laps |
| 27 | Frederik Vesti | Prema | 12 | Collision |
| 28 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 7 | Engine |
| 29 | Igor Fraga | Charouz | 2 | Collision |
| 30 | Lukas Dunner | MP Motorsport | 1 | Collision |
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