Heavy rain and bad visibility at Spa brought the Formula 3 race to a premature end before it ever truly began. Multiple incidents behind the safety car who led the formation lap caused an early red flag. With just two official laps cruised behind a safety car, only the top five drivers were awarded reduced points for the “feature race”.
Formation lap mayham
Conditions took a turn for the worse overnight at Spa-Francorchamps. With the persistent rainfall and terrible visibility, the FIA made the call to begin the F3 formation lap behind a safety car. Even then, chaos struck before a single green-flag lap could be completed.
Just moments into the formation lap, Hedley lost control at Eau Rouge, spinning into the barriers. Further back, Badoer was unable to brake in time and rear-ended Tramnitz. While both Hedley and Tramnitz managed to restart and return to the pits, the crash prompted an immediate red flag. As cars rolled into the pit lane, British driver Slater summed it up perfectly on the radio:
“I’ve never seen this much rain in my life.“
Mandatory wet weather tyres
After a half-hour delay, race control announced a new start time of 9:05 AM local, still behind the safety car and with mandatory wet-weather tyres. But any hopes of proper racing were dashed almost immediately.
On the very first lap of the attempted restart, Inthraphuvasak slid off the circuit after struggling to warm his tyres. Although he restarted the car, it got beached on a high kerb and he couldn’t rejoin. With three cars now out — Inthraphuvasak, Tramnitz, and Badoer — and no green-flag laps completed, another red flag was waved just two laps into the safety car-led race.
Premature end of the race
With Spa’s tight weekend schedule and more rain looming, it was eventually confirmed that the race would not resume. Because no green-flag racing occurred and the drivers only cruised two laps behind a safety car, full points couldn’t be awarded. Only the top five drivers at the time of stoppage were awarded reduced points (6–4–3–2–1).
The final classification saw Benavides take a win, followed by Camara, Voisin, Bilinski, and Stenshorne rounding out the top five. The order stayed the same as during Friday’s qualifying.