James Wharton took the win in a thrilling yet disrupted Formula Three Sprint Race. He fought his way from second on the grid, before eventually crossing the line in first.
The Start of the Race
Gerrard Xie started from reverse grid pole and was able to maintain his lead. James Wharton challenged Xie for the lead but was unable to move up. Freddie Slater managed to fight his way up to second after an impressive battle with Wharton.
Further back, more drivers were making moves but Xie was slowly pulling further away at the front of the field. Christian Ho and Pedro Clerot were battling while Fernando Barichello, Fionn and Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi were closing in on them.
Lap 3 saw the battle between Wharton and Slater restart but this time it was Wharton who came out on top, moving up to second.
A yellow flag was thrown on Lap 4 as José Garfias had stopped on track however he was able to keep going. Meanwhile, Mattia Colnaghi had pulled into the pit lane to retire following a suspected rear right puncture.
Just one lap later, James Wharton successfully moved up to first place but the race was disrupted on Lap 6 as Ernesto Rivera pulled off the track due to having no power.
The First Safety Car
On Lap 7, the yellow flag that was shown progressed to a Virtual Safety Car as Rivera’s car was recovered. Lap 8 saw the VSC become a full Safety Car.
The Safety Car came to an end on Lap 10 and immediately the Wharton and Slater battle restarted. Lap 12 saw Taito Kato charging and pulling off some impressive moves.
Bhirombhakdi was handed a 10 second penalty as he had not followed the run-off area correctly. Disaster struck for championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu who spun whilst battling Enzo Deligny.
The Second Safety Car
As a result of Ugochukwu’s incident, a second Safety Car was called. During the Safety Car period, Ho was handed two time penalties– one was 10 seconds and the other was 5 seconds due to a false start.
The Safety Car ended on Lap 16 and just one lap later a yellow flag was shown for Matteo De Palo who had spun.
Brando Badoer, Nicola Lacorte and Bhirombhakdi were all handed penalties for various infringements.
On Lap 21, James Wharton crossed the line to finish in first place with Freddie Slater and Gerrard Xie completing the podium.