SPRINT RACE: Stromsted earns maiden F3 win with dominant drive at Spa

TRIDENT’s Noah Stromsted was in fine form around Spa-Francorchamps to earn his first victory in FIA Formula 3 from second on the grid.

The Mercedes Junior Team driver made an early pass on pole-sitter Freddie Slater and never looked back, eventually winning by six seconds from PREMA Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu. TRIDENT made it a 1-3 with Charlie Wurz completing the podium in third.

AS IT HAPPENED

Slater aced his start to keep hold of the lead into Turn 1 ahead of Stromsted along the Kemmel Straight, the Hitech TGR driver defended into Les Combes, with Bruno del Pino and Wurz following in third and fourth behind them.

Lap 2 and Wurz was able to pass the MP Motorsport driver to make it a TRIDENT 2-3, though the leading pair had escaped out of DRS range to those behind.

Across the line on the following lap, Stromsted had the gap to Slater down to 0.4s and along the Kemmel Straight, the Dane swept into the lead with DRS.

Ugochukwu was on the move, having overtaken Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and del Pino to get to P4 by Lap 3, he cleared Wurz around the outside into Les Combes to take third on Lap 4.

Onto Lap 6 and Martinius Stenshorne put himself into fifth with a DRS pass on del Pino into Turn 5 and set his sights on Wurz, who was less than a second ahead.

Having lost the lead earlier on, Slater fell out of DRS range to Stromsted and Ugochukwu moved himself into second with a DRS pass along the Kemmel Straight on Lap 7.

Just behind them, Inthraphuvasak and del Pino went into battle at Turn 5, and the Campos Racing driver won their fight as the MP man dipped a wheel into the gravel at Turn 6. That allowed Nikola Tsolov to sneak through for seventh as well.

Wurz was able to take third from Slater on the following tour, while Championship rivals Rafael Câmara and Mari Boya passed del Pino into Les Combes to take eighth and ninth places respectively.

Entering Lap 9, Inthraphuvasak fell to eighth in a five-car battle as Stenshorne along with title rivals Tsolov, Câmara and Boya fought by Slater.

The Bulgarian passed Stenshorne for fourth place going into Lap 10 to put a car between himself and the Championship leader, but only briefly. Câmara used DRS along the Kemmel Straight to break into the top five himself, going ahead of the Hitech driver at Turn 5.

Crucially in the title picture, Boya was hit with a five-second time penalty on the pre-penultimate lap for exceeding track limits. The Spaniard was running in eight position, but had several other drivers within that window going onto Lap 11 of 12.

Onto the final lap and Inthraphuvasak passed Stenshorne to take sixth place, but teammate Boya couldn’t find a route past at Les Combes to follow.

Up in front, Stromsted went untroubled after taking the lead and dominated to earn his first F3 win by six seconds.

Ugochukwu was on the podium in P2, and Wurz resisted a final lap charge from Tsolov to complete the podium in third place.

Câmara was fifth on a strong day for TRIDENT ahead of Inthraphuvasak and Stenshorne. Del Pino, Brando Badoer and Slater rounded out the points-paying positions in eighth, ninth and 10th, as Boya fell to 15th with his time penalty applied.

KEY QUOTE – Noah Stromsted, TRIDENT

“Finished P1, first of the season. Extremely happy, the pace today was very, very strong. To bounce back from two difficult weekends in Silverstone and Austria is amazing. So thank you very much to the team.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Câmara continues to lead the way in the Drivers’ Championship, the Brazilian going onto 126 points ahead of Tsolov, who goes second on 98. Tim Tramnitz drops to third on 93, ahead of Boya on 85. Martinius Stenshorne rounds out the top five on 80.

TRIDENT take the lead back in the Teams’ Standings with their 1-3-5 finish. The Italian outfit lead Campos Racing 232 points to 221. MP Motorsport are third on 164 points ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing on 124, and ART Grand Prix in fifth place on 119 points.

UP NEXT

The FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race from Spa-Francorchamps is set to take place on Sunday morning at 08:30 local time, with Brad Benavides going from pole position.