SPRINT RACE: Domingues takes maiden F3 victory in VAR 1-2 around Barcelona

It was a glorious day for Van Amersfoort Racing as Ivan Domingues claimed his first FIA Formula 3 race victory in the Barcelona Sprint Race.

The Portuguese driver became the first from his nation to win in the Championship, and he led home a VAR 1-2, with teammate Santiago Ramos finishing second.

Nikola Tsolov rounded out the top three for Campos Racing.

AS IT HAPPENED

Roman Bilinski immediately covered off Martinius Stenshorne from the front row, but the Hitech TGR driver dived to the inside at Turn 1, while Tim Tramnitz opted for the outside line. The MP Motorsport driver collided with Stenshorne, spinning the Norwegian into the path of Bilinski.

All three were out as a result of the contact, while a great start for Ivan Domingues from sixth on the grid left the rookie with the lead.

The Safety Car was deployed for various incidents on the opening lap, including a collision between Tuukka Taponen and Rafael Câmara. The ART Grand Prix suffered a slow getaway, and the TRIDENT driver was left unsighted, and with nowhere to go the pair made race-ending contact.

The Safety Car was withdrawn and the Sprint resumed entering Lap 5, with Domingues getting a good restart to lead Noah Stromsted and Laurens van Hoepen in the top three.

Alessandro Giusti had to avoid contact with teammate Tramnitz on the opening lap but his recovery from P10 started with a move on the other MP driver Bruno del Pino at Turn 4. He wasn’t done, as a sweep around the outside of Noel León at Turn 5 gave him eighth position.

Van Hoepen fell back from the top two after the restart, but Ramos was right with the ART car, and with DRS on Lap 9, the Mexican driver secured P3 into Turn 1.

Lap 12 and Théophile Nael looked to pull off a pass on James Wharton at Turn 1, the pair going wheel-to-wheel at Turn 1 that left the VAR driver taking to the escape road. The Frenchman emerged ahead on the road and with P6.

Onto Lap 13 and van Hoepen lost another spot, this time to Campos’ Tsolov as the Bulgarian driver rounded the ART into Turn 1.

Giusti moved himself into seventh on Lap 15, using DRS to pass Wharton down the main straight. A few corners later, an opportunistic dive to the inside of Turn 5 gave Mari Boya 10th position in a great pass on compatriot del Pino.

Boya’s charge continued at the expense of León the following lap, a DRS pass for ninth into the first corner on the PREMA Racing driver putting him eighth.

With five laps to go, Stromsted began to close back in on the race leader, lapping 0.3s quicker than Domingues and the TRIDENT rookie was on the cusp of gaining DRS once more.

But, as the pair were about to begin Lap 18, the Dane suddenly slowed, pulling into the pitlane retiring from the race.

It left Domingues to lead home a 1-2 for VAR with Ramos second on a great day for the team. Tsolov was third for Campos with van Hoepen fourth in the ART.

Nael capped off a great day for the Dutch squad with P5 ahead of the recovering Giusti and home hero Boya.

Wharton was eighth ahead of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in P9 and León, who rounded out the points in P10.

KEY QUOTE – Ivan Domingues, Van Amersfoort Racing

“A good race, nice to get my first win this year, it really, really helped me. We managed to get a really good start to go straight into P4 before T1. Then the cars ahead had a collision, so I just took advantage and from there managed to the end of the race. I’m very happy that Santi – my teammate is sharing the podium with me as well as my friend Nikola. Really happy.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Rafael Câmara retains the top spot in the Drivers’ Championship, still on 77 points but Nikola Tsolov closes the gap in second as he goes onto 69 points. Tim Tramnitz is third on 64 points while Noah Stromsted and Tuukka Taponen round out the top five on 52 and 51 points respectively.

TRIDENT remain at the front of the Teams’ Standings with 144 points ahead of Campos Racing on 120, while MP Motorsport are third on 105. Rodin Motorsport are fourth with 89 points ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing, who go up to fifth on 80 points.

UP NEXT

The FIA Formula 3 Feature Race in Barcelona is set to get underway at 08:30 local time on Sunday, with Championship leader Rafael Câmara going from pole position.