Arthur Leclerc Clinches Maiden F3 Victory With Dominant French Race Two

Arthur Leclerc dominated French Race Two to record his maiden F3 victory from PREMA teammate, Dennis Hauger who retains the championship lead. 

Leclerc seized the lead from reverse pole and cruised to a dominant victory ahead of teammate, Dennis Hauger by 4.281 seconds after the Norwegian overtook fellow teammate, Olli Caldwell on lap eight for second.

Caldwell eventually lost third to Victor Martins who finished on the podium for the second time today but finished fourth ahead of the Trident duo of Jack Doohan and Clement Novalak, as Race One winner, Aleksandr Smolyar finished seventh ahead of Calan Williams, Ayumu Iwasa and Frederik Vesti.

In the driver standings, Hauger still leads Martins on countback with just one win to the Frenchman’s zero as they sit on 48 points apiece after Martins took the two points for fastest lap, with Caldwell seven points back in third place.

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At lights out, Leclerc got a clean getaway as fellow front-row rival, Jak Crawford stalled and somehow managed to avoid being smashed into from drivers behind as he slowly got away near the back of the order before recovering to 14th at the flag.

Caio Collet was another staller from 13th on the grid but eventually retired with a mechanical issue at the end of the opening lap, as Leclerc controlled his pace ahead of Caldwell and Hauger and soon grew the gap to over two seconds as he cruised to victory.

Caldwell lost second to Hauger on lap eight when the current championship leader dived up the inside of Turn Eight to take second which he controlled to the flag, with Caldwell eventually finishing fourth after struggling with tyre degradation against Martins who made up eight positions to finish third.

Martins in fact forced his way up to fifth in the opening three laps before reeling in Doohan and passing the Aussie into Turn Eight on lap seven for fourth.

Doohan eventually settled for fifth ahead of Trident teammate, Novalak who cleared Iwasa on lap four for sixth, with the Japanese driver eventually slipping to ninth after late overtakes from Smolyar and Williams as Vesti rounded out the top ten.

Further down the order, the only notable incident saw Ido Cohen and Rafael Villagomez collide into Turn Nine on lap 11, after Cohen spun the Mexican around following a clipping of his right rear tyre and the Israeli driver was consequently hit with a 10s time penalty despite retiring with damage.