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France F3: Leclerc takes first victory in Prema 1-2

Arthur Leclerc took his first victory in FIA Formula 3 in Saturday’s second sprint race, leading a Prema Racing 1-2 at Paul Ricard ahead of teammate Dennis Hauger.

Race winner Arthur Leclerc,  Prema Racing

Race winner Arthur Leclerc, Prema Racing

Formula Motorsport Ltd

The Monegasque rookie scored his first F3 points for the Italian outfit after starting on reverse grid pole, crossing the finish line ahead of his teammate, who leads the championship standings.

Prema had looked set to take a podium lock-out, with Olli Caldwell in third, before he was overtaken by MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins on the penultimate lap, taking his second consecutive podium of the weekend.

Alpine Academy driver Martins once again stormed through the field at his home race, finishing third having started 11th. In this morning’s race, he took second, having lined up on the grid in tenth.

Trident’s Jack Doohan finished in fifth, while his teammate Clement Novalak finished sixth at his home race.

Arthur Leclerc,  Prema Racing

Arthur Leclerc, Prema Racing

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Hitech Grand Prix’s Jak Crawford and MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet both stalled on the starting grid, but managed to get their cars fired up after some time.

Leclerc led into turn 1, with Caldwell emerging behind him in the fight for second, extending that gap to over a second by the second lap.

Elsewhere, Doohan managed to pass Hitech Grand Prix’s Ayuma Iwasa on lap 2 to take fourth, while Collet’s race was over after he was involved in a collision.

By the fifth lap, Doohan had joined the back of the front three in podium battle, running just a second behind third placed Hauger, with Martins just one second behind him.

But two laps later, Martins managed to pass Doohan, while Hauger overtook Caldwell for second place, trailing 1.8s behind leader Leclerc – a lead which he had increased to 2.3s by lap 10.

Carlin’s Ido Cohen was handed a ten-second penalty for causing a collision after he was involved in an incident with HWA Racelab’s Rafael Villagomez – his second penalty of the day after an earlier incident, which also involved Villagomez, gave him a five-second penalty. Cohen later returned to the pits and retired from the race.

Two laps from the end of the race, ART Grand Prix’s Alexander Smolyar, who won this morning’s race, tussled with Hitech Grand Prix’s Ayuma Iwasa and Calan Williams (Jenzer Motorsport) for seventh place, with Smolyar emerging in front. Williams eventually passed Iwasa for eighth on the last lap.

ART Grand Prix’s Frederik Vesti will start on pole in tomorrow’s feature race, with Hauger starting second.

Martins will line up third, with Doohan in fourth and Collet in fifth.

Race results:

Cla # Driver Team Time Gap
1 2 Arthur Leclerc
Italy Prema Powerteam 37'46.891
2 1 Norway Dennis Hauger
Italy Prema Powerteam 37'51.172 4.281
3 17 France Victor Martins
Netherlands MP Motorsport 37'54.935 8.044
4 3 United Kingdom Olli Caldwell
Italy Prema Powerteam 37'56.274 9.383
5 4 Australia Jack Doohan
Italy Trident 37'56.958 10.067
6 5 United Kingdom Clement Novalak
Italy Trident 37'59.648 12.757
7 8 Russian Federation Alexander Smolyar
France ART Grand Prix 38'04.933 18.042
8 26 Australia Calan Williams
Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 38'07.555 20.664
9 11 Ayumu Iwasa
United Kingdom HitechGP 38'09.081 22.190
10 7 Denmark Frederik Vesti
France ART Grand Prix 38'11.821 24.930
11 6 Germany David Schumacher
Italy Trident 38'12.251 25.360
12 29 United States Logan Sargeant
Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 38'12.779 25.888
13 14 Italy Matteo Nannini
Germany HWA AG 38'12.825 25.934
14 10 Jak Crawford
United Kingdom HitechGP 38'13.266 26.375
15 21 Italy Lorenzo Colombo
Spain Campos Racing 38'17.496 30.605
16 20 Pierre-Louis Chovet
Spain Campos Racing 38'17.877 30.986
17 9 United States Juan Manuel Correa
France ART Grand Prix 38'18.375 31.484
18 30 Brazil Enzo Fittipaldi
Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 38'18.407 31.516
19 19 Tijmen van
Netherlands MP Motorsport 38'20.502 33.611
20 12 Czech Republic Roman Staněk
United Kingdom HitechGP 38'21.053 34.162
21 15 Oliver Rasmussen
Germany HWA AG 38'23.799 36.908
22 24 United States Kaylen Frederick
United Kingdom Carlin 38'25.198 38.307
23 25 United Kingdom Jonny Edgar
United Kingdom Carlin 38'29.005 42.114
24 22 Amaury Cordeel
Spain Campos Racing 38'33.145 46.254
25 31 Reshad de
Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 38'38.921 52.030
26 27 United Kingdom Johnathan Hoggard
Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 38'43.062 56.171
27 16 Rafael Villagómez
Germany HWA AG 38'45.468 58.577
28 28 Filip Ugran
Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 38'49.453 1'02.562
23 Ido Cohen
United Kingdom Carlin 6 laps
18 Caio Collet
Netherlands MP Motorsport

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