Lorenzo Colombo dominated a delayed and wet Race 1 of the FIA Formula 3 weekend at Spa to claim his maiden victory in the series.
The start of the formation lap was delayed by 25 minutes due to heavy rain. After a few laps under the Safety Car, the conditions were deemed still not safe enough to go racing in and so, the race was suspended until 10:55 track time (50 minutes after the formation lap was meant to start).
When the race finally got underway with a rolling start, Colombo led from Jak Crawford, Roman Stanek and Johnathan Hoggard.
Further behind on Lap 4, Caio Collet and Victor Martins swamped Logan Sargeant as they apporached Les Combes and both were able to get through up to eighth and ninth without collision.
After eight laps, the top ten were Colombo, Crawford, Stanek, Hoggard, David Schumacher, Frederik Vesti, Collet, Clement Novalak, Martins and Sargeant.
Lap 9 and Martins continued to make his way through the field, as the Frenchman passed his compatriot Novalak on the exit of La Source to move up to eighth.
With three laps remaining, Hoggard was holding up more than six cars before they went through Eau Rouge.
A slight loss of momentum allowed multiple drivers behind him to overtake on either side including Caio Collet, who used the run-off area of Raidillon to squeeze through and up to fourth position.
However, the stewards deemed that the Brazilian had gained an advantage by going off the track. Therefore, a five-second time penalty was awarded to the Alpine Academy pilot.
Vesti passed Collet for fourth on the next lap exiting La Source, as the Danish driver would not be fought back by the MP Motorsport driver.
The chequered flag came out after 15 laps to see Colombo come out on top ahead of Crawford and Stanek. The Italian would also pick up the points for the fastest lap.
Vesti was fourth ahead of Martins, Hoggard, Novalak and Sargeant, while Collet’s time penalty dropped him from fifth to ninth.
Alex Smolyar collected the last point for tenth, as Jack Doohan’s 12th position means he starts from reverse-grid pole for Race 2 on Saturday afternoon alongside David Schumacher, who was 11th.
Championship leader Dennis Hauger was only 14th but with Doohan not scoring, the gap at the top remains at 49 points.
Race 2 for FIA Formula 3 begins at 17:55 track time following Formula 1 qualifying.
