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F3 Australia: Beganovic charges to feature race win over Fornaroli

The Prema Racing driver drove a smart race, waiting until the second half of the 23-lap journey to make a move and in the end establishing a telling lead over Leonardo Fornaroli.

Trident’s Fornaroli bolted at the start but his handy gap was almost immediately negated by a Safety Car period, prompted by a clash between local driver Tommy Smith (Van Amersfoort) and Joseph Loake (Rodin).

After the damaged cars were cleared away, Fornaroli tried to establish a DRS-proof gap but Gabriele Mini initially held on, keeping it to just under one second and staying in touch. By lap 12 Fornaroli had his advantage beyond the magic DRS gap and tried to ease away, leaving Mini to fend off Beganovic.

That defence only lasted until lap 13 when, after the Prema team management gave him approval to overtake his team-mate, the Swede took off after Fornaroli. Mini looked to have overworked his tyres, when a lap later Williams junior Luke Browning snatched third and pulled away.

It took only a lap for Beganovic to catch Fornaroli and the Trident pilot looked in no mood to defend the faster car, which sliced past at Turn 9 to take the lead, Fornaroli seemingly content to allow Beganovic to set the pace. But over the final two laps Beganovic broke away, taking his maiden F3 win by 0.89secs.

Fornaroli’s fifth podium finish came after a clever drive, but just as the leading pair had settled down to fight out the win, Browning and Mini staged their own for the final step on the podium. Williams Junior Browning held the edge over the Alpine junior until the penultimate lap, Mini sweeping around the outside of Turn 6.

Browning was nearly 13 seconds clear of fifth placed Charlie Wurz. The rookie had a great maiden Feature race at Albert Park, holding out a fellow second-generation driver, Sebastian Montoya (Campos), for fifth place. Fellow Campos pilots Mari Boya and Nikita Bedrin (PHM AIX) finished seventh and eighth.

Oliver Goethe followed ahead of the best local driver, Christian Mansell, to finish ninth. The ART driver, who ran wide and lost ground at the first restart, went on to finish 10th. The other Australian driver in the race, Tommy Smith, tangled with Joseph Loake on the opening lap, prompting the Safety Car.

Sprint race winner Martinius Stenshorne had a mid-race clash with Joshua Dufek and later reported a punctured tyre. The Hitech driver was classified 26th, the last of the drivers to finish the race.

The results mean that Browning and Fornaroli are now tied for the championship lead on 37 points, with Mini on 32. Beganovic jumps to fourth on 28 ahead of Lindblad on 23 and Tramnitz and Mansell tied on 21.

F3 Melbourne - Feature race resuts:
 

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus
1
D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam
1 23

41'23.816

      25   1
2
L. Fornaroli Trident
4 23

+1.682

41'25.498

1.682     18    
3
G. Minì Prema Powerteam
2 23

+3.221

41'27.037

1.539     15    
4
L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight
14 23

+4.050

41'27.866

0.829     12    
5
C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport
17 23

+16.958

41'40.774

12.908     10    
6 Colombia S. Montoya Campos Racing 11 23

+21.230

41'45.046

4.272     8    
7
M. Boya Campos Racing
12 23

+21.492

41'45.308

0.262     6    
8
N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing
27 23

+25.610

41'49.426

4.118     4    
9
O. Goethe Campos Racing
10 23

+26.530

41'50.346

0.920     2    
10
C. Mansell ART Grand Prix
23 23

+26.785

41'50.601

0.255     1    
11
A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam
3 23

+27.009

41'50.825

0.224          
12
S. Meguetounif Trident
5 23

+29.437

41'53.253

2.428          
13
L. Van ART Grand Prix
24 23

+29.512

41'53.328

0.075          
14
M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport
18 23

+30.441

41'54.257

0.929          
15
T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport
7 23

+33.023

41'56.839

2.582          
16
A. Dunne MP Motorsport
9 23

+33.577

41'57.393

0.554          
17
M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport
19 23

+34.067

41'57.883

0.490          
18
K. Sztuka MP Motorsport
8 23

+37.812

42'01.628

3.745          
19
N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix
25 23

+38.222

42'02.038

0.410          
20
C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight
16 23

+42.693

42'06.509

4.471          
21
C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport
29 23

+44.080

42'07.896

1.387          
22
J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing
28 23

+52.748

42'16.564

8.668          
23
P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport
30 23

+1'01.595

42'25.411

8.847          
24
S. Ramos Trident
6 23

+1'09.926

42'33.742

8.331          
25
N. León Van Amersfoort Racing
20 23

+1'10.635

42'34.451

0.709          
26
M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight
15 23

+1'14.235

42'38.051

3.600          
dnf Germany S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing 21 1

+22 Laps

1'54.723

22 Laps       Retirement  
dnf
T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing
26 0

 

        Retirement  
dnf
J. Loake Rodin Motorsport
31 0

 

        Retirement  
dnf
T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing
22 0

 

        Retirement  
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