
MP Motorsport clinched a home victory as Victor Martins won a dramatic 2021 F3 Dutch Race Two ahead of Trident’s Clement Novalak by 0.396 seconds.
Novalak seized the lead at the start from Ido Cohen and held the lead until Lap 16 when Martins launched a sweeping outside move for victory around Tarzanbocht.
Martins though found himself struggling after a late Safety Car restart and ultimately clung on for his maiden F3 win by just 0.396s from Novalak.
Frederik Vesti finished third ahead of Caio Collet as David Schumacher, Ollie Caldwell, Arthur Leclerc, Jak Crawford, Matteo Nannini and Logan Sargeant benefitted from a late collision between Dennis Hauger and Cohen, thus rounding out the top ten as Hauger and Cohen retired a lap down in classification.
In the driver standings, Hauger’s lead over Jack Doohan remains at 28 points after the Aussie made a last lap error to drop him out of the points, as Martins moved above Vesti into third and Novalak claimed fifth from Aleksandr Smolyar.
Reverse-pole sitter, Cohen found himself bogged down on the restart as Novalak made a lightning getaway to seize the lead on the inside of Tarzanbocht, whilst Caldwell dropped to fifth as Vesti and Martins leapfrogged the Brit at the start.
Doohan meanwhile slipped down to tenth after Collet improved to seventh whilst Sargeant and Crawford climbed above the Aussie into eighth and ninth respectively.
Up front, Novalak fended off Cohen until the Safety Car was deployed on Lap Three after Lorenzo Colombo suffered a puncture-induced crash, with their battle resuming on Lap Six whilst Martins swept past Vesti on the inside of Hugenholtzboch for third.
Iwasa meanwhile outbraked himself on the restart at Tarzanbocht and retired in the pits four laps later.
Cohen’s pursuit of Novalak soon faded and the Israelian driver found himself overtaken by Martins on Lap 14 into Tarzanbocht, as the Frenchman climbed to second and quickly hunted Novalak down, earning himself the lead two laps later with an outside move at Tarzanbocht.
Elsewhere, Doohan recovered to eighth as Cohen lost third to Vesti on Lap 15 before eventually dropping to fifth after Hauger passed Caldwell then got Cohen on laps 18 & 19 respectively.
Race One reverse-pole sitter, Amaury Cordeel however dealt a huge twist as he spun at Tarzanbocht on Lap 20 to cause a three lap Safety Car, in turn creating a two lap dash for victory after the Safety Car withdrew at end of Lap 22.
Martins led the field back racing ahead of Novalak and Vesti as Cohen briefly lost fifth to Caldwell, only to hit Hauger’s rear on the exit of Hugenholtzboch to give the Norwegian a puncture as mayhem reigned in midfield across the last two laps.
Come the checkered flag, Cohen and Hauger were classified a lap down after pulling off the track following their collision, as Martins held off Novalak in a drag race to win by 0.396s to give MP Motorsport a home victory.
Vesti clung on for third from Collet as Schumacher, Caldwell, Leclerc, Crawford, Nannini and Sargeant rounded out the top ten.
Doohan was eighth at the start of the final lap but a mistake at Masterbocht saw the Australian drop to 19th at the flag before a time penalty for Filip Ugran post race promoted Doohan to 18th, consequently wasting a huge opportunity to reduce his deficit in the title race to Hauger.
Post-race, Cohen was handed a three-place grid drop for Race Three for causing his collision with Hauger, which means that he will now start P19.
Filip Ugran meanwhile was handed a 10s time penalty for spinning Jonny Edgar on the penultimate lap at Turn Nine, dropping the Romanian from 12th down to 24th.
Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
1 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | 24 | 38m 43.058 |
2 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 24 | + 0.396 |
3 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | 24 | + 2.025 |
4 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | 24 | + 2.408 |
5 | David Schumacher | Trident | 24 | + 3.897 |
6 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | 24 | + 5.102 |
7 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | 24 | + 5.537 |
8 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 24 | + 6.765 |
9 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | 24 | + 7.223 |
10 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | 24 | + 7.790 |
11 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin | 24 | + 8.353 |
12 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | 24 | + 10.184 |
13 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | 24 | + 10.936 |
14 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | 24 | + 10.992 |
15 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | 24 | + 11.672 |
16 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | 24 | + 12.071 |
17 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | 24 | + 12.491 |
18 | Jack Doohan | Trident | 24 | + 13.146 |
19 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | 24 | + 13.312 |
20 | Zdenek Chovanec | Charouz | 24 | + 13.622 |
21 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | 24 | + 13.977 |
22 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | 24 | + 14.041 |
23 | Hunter Yeany | Charouz | 24 | + 14.885 |
24 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | 24 | + 20.117 |
25 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | 24 | + 22.135 |
26 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | 23 | + 1 Lap |
27 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 23 | + 1 Lap |
RET | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | 24 | Spin |
RET | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | 24 | Mechanical |
RET | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | 2 | Puncture |
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