Olli Caldwell Wins Dramatic 2021 Spanish F3 Race Two

PREMA’s Olli Caldwell snatched victory in a dramatic second Spanish race of the 2021 F3 season opening weekend.

Pole-sitter, Enzo Fittipaldi led from lights out as Race One winner, Aleksandr Smolyar got a puncture, causing him to wipe out Charouz’s Logan Sargeant at Turn Two and trigger a four lap Safety Car.

Once racing resumed, Fittipaldi and Schumacher continued scrapping for the lead until the German passed on Lap 12, with Fittipaldi trying to regain the lead three laps later when he shunted Schumacher into the barriers at Turn Two.

Matteo Nannini consequently inherited the lead but he and Dennis Hauger tangled at Turn One on Lap 21, allowing Caldwell to sweep past and take his maiden F3 victory ahead of Victor Martins and Frederik Vesti.

Caldwell therefore now leads the standings on 20 points apiece with Clement Novalak who finished this race in fourth, as Smolyar sits third on 17 points.

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Fittipaldi made a strong start to fend off Schumacher into Turn One but further behind them, Smolyar got a puncture which sent his ART GP wide through the opening two corners as he collected Sargeant to send both drivers crashing out.

Once racing resumed on lap five, Schumacher pushed Fittipaldi every lap until he decided to launch his Trident to the inside of Turn One on Lap 12, sweeping round the outside of Turn Two to claim the lead.

Fittipaldi however set about fighting back as he stuck to the outside of Turn One on Lap 15, catching the kerb which sent him slamming Schumacher into the barriers of Turn Two to end their races.

Nannini therefore inherited the lead as the Safety Car was deployed for three laps and found himself fending off Hauger until they collided on the penultimate lap to ruin their races.

Nannini stuck his HWA Racelab round the outside of Turn One but Hauger clipped the Italian’s right rear to send him spinning into Hauger’s path, with the Norwegian forced to drive into Nannini and destroy his own front wing on top of a ten second time penalty.

Caldwell took full advantage of the mess to sweep past into the lead and successfully fended off the threat of Martins who tried a late overtake at the start of the final lap but ran wide and re-joined behind Caldwell after going through the Turn Two bollards.

As the checkered flag fell, Caldwell clinched his first F3 win by just 0.905 seconds from Martins as Vesti rounded out the podium ahead of Novalak, Caio Collet, Jonny Edgar, Ayumu Iwasa, Jack Doohan and Jak Crawford who completed the top nine.

Juan Manuel Correa meanwhile claimed the final point in tenth in only his second race back after nearly two years sidelined through injuries suffered in a tragic F2 crash in Belgium in late August 2019.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Olli Caldwell	PREMA	22	40m 42.623
2	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	22	+ 0.905
3	Frederik Vesti	ART GP	22	+ 2.858
4	Clement Novalak	Trident	22	+ 3.742
5	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	22	+ 3.979
6	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	22	+ 4.522
7	Ayumu Iwasa	Hitech GP	22	+ 5.008
8	Jack Doohan	Trident	22	+ 5.511
9	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	22	+ 5.868
10	Juan Manuel Correa	ART GP	22	+ 6.467
11	Calan Williams	Jenzer	22	+ 6.7757
12	Arthur Leclerc	PREMA	22	+ 8.552
13	Roman Stanek	Hitech GP	22	+ 9.862
14	Reshad De Gerus	Charouz	22	+ 10.328
15	Pierre-Louis Chovet	Jenzer	22	+ 10.919
16	Tijmen van der Helm	MP Motorsport	22	+ 11.482
17	Amaury Cordeel	Campos	22	+ 11.979
18	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	22	+ 14.113
19	Rafael Villagomez	HWA Racelab	22	+ 15.168
20	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA Racelab	22	+ 15.608
21	Ido Cohen	Carlin	22	+ 16.047
22	Filip Ugran	Jenzer	22	+ 16.408
23	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos	22	+ 16.901
24	Laszlo Toth	Campos	22	+ 18.305
25	Dennis Hauger	PREMA	22	+ 1m 37.491
26	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	21	+ 1 Lap
RET	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz	15	Damage
RET	David Schumacher	Trident	14	Collision
RET	Logan Sargeant	Charouz	0	Collision
RET	Aleksandr Smolyar	ART GP	0	Collision