Trident’s Jack Doohan survived a wet scrap to take victory at 2021 Belgian Race Three from MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins.
The race took place in wet conditions with four formation laps followed by a rolling start, as Doohan fought off Martins, only for the Frenchman to take the lead at Pouhon on lap five with an outside move.
MP Motorsport however instructed Martins to hand the position back on the next lap in order to avoid a potential penalty, which he did despite ultimately failing to reclaim the lead as Doohan held on for a comfortable win come the checkered flag.
Aleksandr Smolyar fended off Caio Collet for third as Clement Novalak, Frederik Vesti, Logan Sargeant, Dennis Hauger, David Schumacher and Arthur Leclerc completed the top ten.
In the driver standings, Hauger now hold a 25 point lead ahead of Doohan with two rounds left of the season, as Vesti sits third ahead of Martins who improved to fourth in the championship ahead of Smolyar who round out the top five drivers.
Although cloudy skies lingered overnight, rain returned at dawn and has been intermittent throughout the morning, leaving the track wet at the start as the race began under the Safety Car for the opening four laps.
Once the racing got underway with a rolling start, Doohan made clean getaway ahead of Martins as Johnathan Hoggard overtook Schumacher in the only change inside the top ten.
Doohan’s main title rival, Hauger initially stayed 14th but managed to improve to P9 in the next four laps as he reeled off Lorenzo Colombo, Jak Crawford, Roman Stanek and Hoggard.
Up front, Martins kept Doohan under pressure and took the lead at Pouhon on lap five despite unintentionally overtaking with all four wheels on the outside kerbs, resulting in him handing the lead back a lap later which Doohan ultimately held to the flag.
Hoggard’s challenge for points ended on lap ten as he ran wide at exit of Les Combes chicane, dropping him to 16th.
Hauger on that same lap made an outside move on Schumacher to take eighth at Courbe Paul Frere which he held to the flag, to limit Doohan’s points haul margin to 21 points and keep himself in firm control of the title fight.
Up front, Doohan went on to win from Martins by 2.001 seconds which is his second win of the weekend after he took victory in the second race.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Jack Doohan | Trident | 14 | 33m 52.417 |
| 2 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | 14 | + 2.001 |
| 3 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | 14 | + 12.205 |
| 4 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | 14 | + 13.316 |
| 5 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 14 | + 14.383 |
| 6 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | 14 | + 15.959 |
| 7 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | 14 | + 17.705 |
| 8 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 14 | + 18.359 |
| 9 | David Schumacher | Trident | 14 | + 20.996 |
| 10 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | 14 | + 22.940 |
| 11 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | 14 | + 30.230 |
| 12 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 14 | + 35.466 |
| 13 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | 14 | + 37.487 |
| 14 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | 14 | + 38.091 |
| 15 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | 14 | + 43.686 |
| 16 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | 14 | + 45.687 |
| 17 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | 14 | + 50.013 |
| 18 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | 14 | + 52.941 |
| 19 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | 14 | + 54.192 |
| 20 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | 14 | + 54.400 |
| 21 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | 14 | + 55.057 |
| 22 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | 14 | + 55.654 |
| 23 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | 14 | + 1m 01.370 |
| 24 | Zdenek Chovanec | Charouz | 14 | + 1m 03.391 |
| 25 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | 14 | + 1m 18.617 |
| 26 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | 14 | + 2m 13.964 |
| RET | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | 14 | Mechanical |
| RET | Hunter Yeany | Charouz | 1 | Mechanical |
| RET | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | 1 | Collision |

Leave a Reply