Jack Doohan Snatches Maiden F3 Victory at Damp 2021 French Race Three

Jack Doohan snatched his maiden F3 victory at a damp 2021 French Race Three ahead of championship leader, Dennis Hauger.

Doohan initially dropped to fifth at the start but got past Clement Novalak before passing Victor Martins and Frederik Vesti on laps seven and ten respectively, ahead of chasing Dennis Hauger down and passing the championship leader on lap 15 into Turn One for victory.

Caio Collet meanwhile recovered from a sluggish start to finish third ahead of Martins and Novalak as Vesti faded from pole down to sixth at the checkered flag, ahead of Ayumu Iwasa, Aleksandr Smolyar, Juan Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford who round out the top ten.

In the driver standings, Hauger now leads Martins by six points as Doohan improved to third with the top three now split by just eight points after the second of a seven round 2021 season.

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Rain swept in around half a hour before the scheduled race start which caused a five minute delay to the start of the race, as teams frantically changed to wet set-ups and tyres due to the worsening weather conditions.

At lights out, Hauger made the better start to lead Vesti as Novalak got a lightning start to climb to third into Turn Two, only to run wide at Turn 11 and concede position to Martins but managed to get back past his French compatriot into Turn Five on the next lap.

Collet meanwhile made a slow start but recovered to sixth on lap three just as Ollie Caldwell retired with suspension damager from an unseen collision, whilst David Schumacher and Rafael Villagomez had wide moments at Turns 11 and 12 respectively.

Up front, Hauger had a bridged a three second lead as the rain stopped on lap four with Novalak then getting wide out of Turn Four on lap six, which cost him two positions to Martins and Doohan who then swept past Martins into Turn One at the start of the next lap to claim third.

Doohan soon afterwards reeled in Vesti and was allowed through when the Danish driver ran wide into Turn Four, whilst Collet cleared Novalak for fifth on that same lap.

Vesti then lost two positions to Martins and Collet on the following lap with Collet then clearing Martins into Turn 15 at the end of that lap for third, which he held to the flag ahead of his MP Motorsport teammate as Vesti fell to sixth after Novalak got through on the run to Turn Ten on lap 15.

Up front, Doohan – son of five-time MotoGP champion, Mick Doohan, began lap 11 sat 2.447 seconds off Hauger but within three laps managed to get himself to within a second of the Norwegian to unleash a late move to the inside of Turn 15, only to brake too deep but recovered to sweep around the outside of Turn One at start of the following lap for victory.

Hauger however kept the Aussie driver honest throughout the closing laps as he finished just 1.551s behind Doohan, who has clinched his maiden F3 win after moving to Trident this season following a disastrous rookie campaign in 2020 at HWA Racelab.