Campos Racing driver Mari Boya seized his maiden victory on home soil during a hectic Barcelona Formula 3 Sprint Race, which was completed under the Safety Car.
Boya capitalised on the two Trident drivers ahead coming together in the opening exchanges to pip Alex Dunne to become the ninth different winner in the ninth race.
Santiago Ramos made a great start to retain pole position into Turn 1 while, while Trident team-mate Sami Meguetounif retained second place as Boya resided third.
Goethe moved up three places on the opening lap, as Sebastian Montoya overcame the penalty that dropped him to 26th on the grid to rise up several places to 12th.
Heading into the second lap, there was a four-wide battle into the opening corner which witnessed Christian Mansell complete a glorious overtake to move into 13th.
Back at the sharp end, there was contact between the Trident drivers as Meguetounif attempted a move at Turn 1, ended up on the grass and clipped his team-mate.
The incident saw the two leaders relinquish positions to Boya’s Campos, while Ramos limped his Trident back to the pit lane to have the damage repaired to his car.
Nikita Bedrin’s participation would also end up premature as the PHM Racing driver made contact with Rodin’s Callum Voisin through the resulting yellow flag period.
The Safety Car returned to the pit lane and the race proceeded to resume on Lap 8, with Boya entering Turn 1 unopposed with a margin over Dunne’s MP Motorsport.
A battle ensued behind between Arvid Lindblad and Trident’s highest-placed driver Leonardo Fornaroli for seventh place, the pair swapping positions through Turn 3.
Boya clocked the fastest lap on the ninth lap, but Dunne remained attached to his rear and in DRS range. However, the Irishman also had Goethe right behind his car.
Martinius Stenshorne launched an excellent dive around Laurens Van Hoepen on Lap 10 to leave the ART Grand Prix driver vulnerable to Noel Leon going into Turn 5.
Montoya was continuing his exploits through the order as had now elevated his Campos Racing car up into 13th position on Lap 12, behind Mansell’s ART Grand Prix.
The pack was beginning to catch up to the race leaders at this stage, creating a massive DRS train to ensure that the field was bunched up going into the final stages.
Browning was scrambling to salvage some points in the truncated race and passed around Mansell’s outside at Turn 12, but he then lost it on Lap 14 through Turn 3.
Gabriele Mini was enduring a challenging outing as the championship leader was situated down in 11th place and his attention was on an eager Montoya on Lap 15.
Dunne almost caught Boya out on the Turn 1 exit on Lap 15, but the home representative caught an inch of space to pull ahead of his rival in the MP Motorsport car.
With five laps remaining, Goethe had fallen out of DRS range to second-place Dune and was now coming under increased pressure from Stenshorne creeping behind.
A light touch between Montoya and Mini on the Turn 4 exit approaching Turn 5 on Lap 18 would have disastrous consequences as both drivers ended up in the gravel.
The Safety Car emerged to clear up the stranded cars and that remained in place until the end of the race to protect Boya from being vulnerable to Dunne on a restart.
Boya took the chequered flag to emerge victorious on home soil at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya; Dunne was second and Stenshorne took the final podium spot.
Van Hoepen came fourth in his ART Grand Prix machine as Leon dropped down to fifth place for Van Amersfoort Racing, with Trident’s Fornaroli classified in seventh.
Dino Beganovic edged out his Prema team-mate Lindblad as the pair claimed eighth and ninth, with Tim Tramnitz securing the final point in 10th with MP Motorsport.
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