The feature race was under the heavy rain for Formula 3, where the strategy played a big part. In the end, Mari Boya won after an amazing start and a suspended race.

The grid was a mix of wet and hard tires for the feature race. With the question of rain earlier this morning, everyone knew the strategy would be crucial. Noah Strømsted had an unsafe release on Tim Tramnitz, something that could lead to a penalty after the race. Nikola Tsolov, starting on pole, can be seen struggling with his hard tires on half of the track, except on sector 3, where the track is almost dry. Matias Zagazeta went into the pit lane at the end of the formation lap to change his tires in hard.

Crucial strategies

Drivers in wet tires are much more comfortable on their tires, which resulted in Mari Boya taking the advantage at the start of the race. Laurens Van Hoepen took a 5-second penalty for a false start. On the other hand, we witnessed an amazing start from Théophile Naël, who went from P9 to P2. On the other hand, Alessandro Giusti went wide at the end of the first lap and found himself in the twentythird posistion on the grid.

All the drivers who started on hard, like Wurz, Tramnitz, Câmara, Tsolov, and Ugochukwu, lost around fifteen positions. Laurens Van Hoepen overtook Tasanapol Inthrapuvasak in lap 5, while Noel León set the fastest lap thanks to the DRS. Brad Benavides had understeer and spun at the end of the same lap; he DNF’d two laps later. Roman Bilinski overtook the ART Grand Prix of Van Hoepen for fourth place. After a bit of hesitation, Trident realised hard tires were not the best strategy and decided to pit Charlie Wurz on lap 7 and hope for a safety car.

Lack of visibility and interruption of the race

Naël and León were battling hard on track for the second place, with the Prema driver hoping for the VAR driver to make a mistake so he could overtake him. Rafael Câmara performed magic with a double overtake on Ugochukwu and Tsolov. The three of them pitted on lap 10, with Trident doing a terrible pit stop. The visibility in sector 2 and 3 was very poor and a lot of drivers made mistakes, like Noel León, Roman Bilinski, and Louis Sharp. The Nr. 24 driver stuck his car into the gravel, bringing the safety car on track.

Even under the safety car, Martinus Stenshorne went wide and into the gravel but in the end managed to go back on track. The same thing happend to Nikola Tsolov, who locked his tires and almost spun behind the SC. Rafael Câmara on his fresher tires was really struggling on the damp track. The steward must have seen what was happening and decided to bring out the red flag on lap 15. Both Hedley and Mariangeli took a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for a safety car infringement. Matias Zagazeta also took a 5-second penalty for speeding into the pit lane under the safety car. Due to the weather, the race was suspended, seeing Mari Boya win for the second time in Formula 3, in front of Théophile Naël and Noel León. It truly was a race to forget for the leaders of the championship, as Tsolov and Câmara finished out of the points.