F3 Spain: Martins recaptures points lead with feature race win

The ART driver passed Trident’s Roman Stanek on the run down to Turn 1, having had a better start than the Trident driver. 

He quickly built up a solid lead and despite two safety cars, held on to take his third series victory. 

Stanek took second place and sits second in the drivers’ standings, resisting challenges from Hitech’s Isack Hadjar and Alexander Smolyar (MP Motorsport), who finished third and fourth respectively. 

Martins’ good start put him straight into the lead ahead of poleman Stanek, while further back Prema Racing’s Ollie Bearman passed teammate Arthur Leclerc, who also fell behind Caio Collet (MP Motorsport) at the start. 

Prema’s Jak Crawford made up two places by Turn 1 to run in seventh. 

Hadjar made up a place to take third from Smolyar around the outside of Turn 1 and was close to passing Stanek ahead of him before holding off. 

The safety car was deployed on lap 4 after Rafael Villagomez and Kush Maini (MP Motorsport) made contact at Turn 12, with the Van Amersfoort Racing driver bouncing across the gravel and into the barrier, ending his race. 

Maini received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision. 

Racing resumed on lap 8, with Jak Crawford passing Kaylen Frederick for sixth at Turn 1 before Collet followed him through several corners later. 

Stanek, Hadjar and Smolyar were embroiled in a tight battle for second by lap 10, with Martins almost a second clear out front. 

A second safety car came the following lap after Carlin’s Brad Benavides went into the barriers at Turn 2, telling engineers over the radio he had suffered a mechanical issue. 

On the restart, Leclerc made contact with sprint race winner David Vidales, who was forced to run wide at Turn 1, and received a five-second penalty.  

He fell to 11th before making it back past Gregoire Saucy (ART) before running wide in a bid to pass Juan Manuel Correa for 10th on the run down to Turn 1 in an incident which will be investigated after the race.

Correa repassed Leclerc at the chicane while the Monagesque driver tussled with reigning Formula Regional European champion Saucy into the final laps. 

Martins was over two seconds clear by the penultimate lap and crossed the line 2.3s ahead of Stanek.  

Bearman finished fifth, his second best result of the season so far, with Crawford in sixth and Collet in seventh.  

Franco Colapinto (Van Amersfoort Racing), Frederick and Correa rounded off the top 10, with Saucy in 11th.  

Formula 3 returns at Silverstone in support of the British Grand Prix from 1-3 July. 

F3 Spain - Feature race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	7	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix
2	2	Roman Staněk	Trident	2.300
3	18	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP	3.000
4	11	Alexander Smolyar	MP Motorsport	3.600
5	6	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	4.300
6	5	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	5.400
7	10	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	6.600
8	29	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	6.800
9	17	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	8.400
10	9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	12.000
11	8	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	14.100
12	25	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	15.200
13	3	Zane Maloney	Trident	17.500
14	4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	18.300
15	1	Oliver Rasmussen	Trident	18.700
16	15	Lirim Zendeli	Charouz Racing System	21.200
17	23	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	26.000
18	16	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System	26.600
19	19	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	27.800
20	31	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	28.200
21	22	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	28.400
22	24	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	29.700
23	28	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	29.900
24	14	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System	31.100
25	12	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	54.800
26	21	Hunter Yeany	Campos Racing	1'25.400
27	26	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin
	20	David Vidales	Campos Racing
	27	Brad Benavides	Carlin
	30	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing
View full results