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F3 Australia: Stenshorne wins sprint thriller

The first quarter of the race featured a thrilling duel between polesitter Laurens Van Hoepen and Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne, with Christian Mansell also keeping himself in the mix in the second ART.

On lap three, Stenshorne launched his attack on Van Hoepen, making a pass on the Dutchman at Turn 11, only for the latter to retake the position a few corners later.

Stenshorne and Van Hoepen traded positions again on the following tour before the Norwegian made what turned out to be the decisive move for the lead at Turn 1 on lap five.

Stenshorne then pulled away from the chasing pack in his Hitech, expanding his lead to 2.5s to put himself as the favourite for the win at the halfway point of the race.

But by this time Lindblad had already jumped from fifth to second place, having passed Mansell for a spot on the podium on lap six before snatching another position from Van Hoepen.

Lindblad then began to break into Stenshorne’s advantage and was able to bring the deficit down to just three tenths on lap 14, when the safety car was deployed to retrieve the stranded PHM of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, who was struck in the gravel trap at Turn 1 after an incident with Van Amersrfoort’s Tommy Smith.

The caution period allowed Stenshorne to regroup himself and the 18-year-old made a brilliant relaunch when the safety car peeled into the pits at the end of lap 16 to dissipate any immediate threat from Lindblad.

Lindblad did have a look on Stenshorne on lap 18, but the latter was able to build a margin for himself on the penultimate tour to take the chequered flag by 1.6s and score back-to-back wins for Hitech after Luke Browning’s success in the Bahrain feature race earlier this month.

Arvid Lindblad, Prema Racing (Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

Van Hoepen held on to third place behind Lindblad, despite coming under serious pressure from the Campos of Mari Boya in the closing stages of the race.

Boya finished just ahead of team-mate Oliver Goethe, while Dino Beganovic snatched sixth position from team-mate Gabriel Mini at the final corner to end as the top Prema driver in the 20-lap sprint.

Sebastian Montoya started the last lap in seventh place, ahead of even Beganovic, but slumped to 10th at the finish, behind PHM’s Nikita Bedrin and MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne.

It was a disastrous race for Williams junior Browning, who was forced to pull into the pits on lap 5 with what appeared to be a technical issue. Although he was able to return to the track, he ended up as the last of the classified finishers in 28th, a lap down on his winning team-mate Stenshorne.

F3 Australia sprint race results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus
1
M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight
15 20

-

           
2
A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam
3 20

+1.600

1.6

1.600          
3
L. Van ART Grand Prix
24 20

+1.900

1.9

0.300          
4
M. Boya Campos Racing
12 20

+3.100

3.1

1.200          
5
O. Goethe Campos Racing
10 20

+4.100

4.1

1.000          
6
D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam
1 20

+4.700

4.7

0.600          
7
G. Minì Prema Powerteam
2 20

+5.100

5.1

0.400          
8
N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing
27 20

+5.400

5.4

0.300          
9
A. Dunne MP Motorsport
9 20

+6.400

6.4

1.000          
10 Colombia S. Montoya Campos Racing 11 20

+7.100

7.1

0.700          
11
L. Fornaroli Trident
4 20

+7.300

7.3

0.200          
12
C. Mansell ART Grand Prix
23 20

+7.700

7.7

0.400          
13
C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport
17 20

+8.200

8.2

0.500          
14
T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport
7 20

+8.600

8.6

0.400          
15
J. Loake Rodin Motorsport
31 20

+10.800

10.8

2.200          
16
M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport
19 20

+11.200

11.2

0.400          
17
S. Meguetounif Trident
5 20

+13.200

13.2

2.000          
18
C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport
29 20

+13.700

13.7

0.500          
19
M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport
18 20

+14.000

14.0

0.300          
20 Germany S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing 21 20

+14.600

14.6

0.600          
21
N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix
25 20

+15.200

15.2

0.600          
22
J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing
28 20

+15.600

15.6

0.400          
23
P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport
30 20

+16.800

16.8

1.200          
24
K. Sztuka MP Motorsport
8 20

+16.900

16.9

0.100          
25
T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing
22 20

+17.300

17.3

0.400          
26
S. Ramos Trident
6 20

+17.400

17.4

0.100          
27
C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight
16 20

+18.200

18.2

0.800          
28
L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight
14 19

1 lap

           
dnf
T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing
26 13

7 laps

        Retirement  
dnf
N. León Van Amersfoort Racing
20 12

8 laps

        Retirement  
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