Campos’ Lorenzo Colombo beat difficult wet conditions in order to clinch his maiden F3 victory at 2021 Belgian Race One in dominant fashion.
The race initially was delayed 30 minutes due to torrential rain preventing the medical helicopter from flying, only to be suspended after three formation laps due to poor visibility ahead of a Safety Car restart from which Colombo cruised to victory unchallenged from Jak Crawford and Roman Stanek.
Frederik Vesti overcame a flurry of late overtakes to finish fourth ahead of Victor Martins, Johnathan Hoggard, Clement Novalak and Logan Sargeant, who all benefitted from a five second time penalty for Caio Collet who was demoted to ninth ahead of Aleksandr Smolyar after overtaking off track.
In the driver standings, Dennis Hauger still holds a 59 point lead over Jack Doohan but the latter is on reverse pole for the second race later today.
The start of the race was delayed 30 minutes because torrential weather conditions prevented the medical helicopter from flying if required, in the event of a major accident which resulted in emergency air transportation to the local hospital.
Jenzer’s Filip Ugran meanwhile was given special dispensation to participate in this weekend’s races despite failing to feature in Friday’s action due to medical circumstances, although Jenzer was able to prove that Ugran had ‘sufficient speed and experience’ in previous events at Spa.
Ugran however had to start this race from the pit-lane due to failing to set a time within the 107% rule in Friday Practice and Qualifying, and will do likewise for Race Three tomorrow (29 August).
Stewards opted to run three formation laps behind the Safety Car before eventually suspending the start for 12 further minutes due to awful visibility, before commencing three further laps behind the Safety Car albeit under an official race start.
Once all 29 cars were unleashed on lap four for a 12 lap sprint, Colombo sprinted away unchallenged from Crawford and Stanek, as the latter fended off Hoggard in the opening stages.
Collet meanwhile made up two positions as he dispatched Sargeant and Novalak on the run to Les Combes and settled into a holding position behind Vesti, whilst Martins cleared Sargeant before clearing Novalak for eighth on lap nine.
Hoggard eventually found himself leading a trail of six cars which came to a head on lap 13 as he ran wide at La Source, giving himself momentum to fend off Schumacher and Vesti through Eau Rouge and Raidillon which caused Collet to take evasive action at the top as he leapfrogged the trio for fourth.
Schumacher meanwhile got bumped down to 11th due to loss of momentum in his scrap at top of the hill, as Vesti was unleashed by Collet a lap later in a failed attempt by the Brazilian to avoid a five-second time penalty for overtaking off track.
Collet ultimately dropped to ninth after the flag as a result of his penalty as Martins finished fifth following a late overtake on Hoggard who fended off Novalak and Sargeant for sixth, whilst Smolyar claimed the final point.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | 15 | 38m 46.686 |
| 2 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 15 | + 13.471 |
| 3 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | 15 | + 15.487 |
| 4 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | 15 | + 19.099 |
| 5 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | 15 | + 21.157 |
| 6 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | 15 | + 23.665 |
| 7 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 15 | + 24.493 |
| 8 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | 15 | + 24.544 |
| 9 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | 15 | + 25.275 |
| 10 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | 15 | + 25.467 |
| 11 | David Schumacher | Trident | 15 | + 25.967 |
| 12 | Jack Doohan | Trident | 15 | + 26.911 |
| 13 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | 15 | + 28.367 |
| 14 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 15 | + 30.018 |
| 15 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | 15 | + 31.487 |
| 16 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | 15 | + 44.348 |
| 17 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | 15 | + 46.430 |
| 18 | Hunter Yeany | Charouz | 15 | + 50.707 |
| 19 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | 15 | + 53.472 |
| 20 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | 15 | + 57.012 |
| 21 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | 15 | + 57.637 |
| 22 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | 15 | + 58.493 |
| 23 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | 15 | + 59.173 |
| 24 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | 15 | + 1m 00.649 |
| 25 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | 15 | + 1m 04.853 |
| 26 | Zdenek Chovanec | Charouz | 15 | + 1m 08.490 |
| 27 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | 15 | + 2m 12.652 |
| 28 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | 14 | + 1 Lap |
| 29 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | 4 | Mechanical |
Leave a Reply