After securing a fine one-two finish in Saturday’s FIA Formula 3 Sprint at Spa-Francorchamps Belgium, race winner Dino Beganovic and championship leader Gabriele Mini had their say on the evolving title fight.
Mini got the holeshot from reverse grid polesitter Beganovic at lights out, with damp conditions making things tricky for the slick-shod runners.
After an early Safety Car intervention, Beganovic reclaimed the lead once the race restarted and from there, the Prema duo controlled the race in formation.
Victory brings Beganovic back into the championship picture with 100 points, 28 behind Mini at the top, who handled pressure from behind to extend his championship lead.
“In a way, I think in every race you always want to maximize what you do,” Mini said post-race.
“Of course now we’re in the second last round of the championship you also have to think about the championship standings.
“The goal was to of course gain points if you can win, if not try to get the good points and gain over the competitors which is what we did today.”
Beganovic meanwhile, now on the outside looking in with a slightly stronger claim for title glory, will be looking to end Sunday’s feature within an even smaller gap to his championship-leading team-mate.
“It will always be a tough race [Sunday], you know, managing it well with race conditions,” Beganovic said.
“We expect tyre management in the race tomorrow but the goal will be to leave for the summer break with a bit smaller gap than we started the weekend [with].”
The defining moment of the race came on Lap 4, as Beganovic closed to the rear of Mini through Eau Rogue and Raidillon before going around the outside at the entry of Les Combes.
On one of the toughest circuits on the F3 calendar, with damp conditions making things even trickier, going nose to tail through the fearsome Eau Rouge and Raidillon isn’t for the faint of heart, especially when one wrong move could see you crash into your title rival and team-mate.
However, for Beganovic and Mini it was no issue, with the pair sharing a long history of racing both as team-mates and rivals.
“I don’t think it’s just about being teammates, it’s more that we have raced each other since karting and we have raced each other since 2016/15,” Beganovic said.
“So it’s been a couple of years that we are together, driving wheel to wheel with each other and we know how to race each other, just basically like that.
“The conditions are tricky, of course it makes it more difficult, but it’s always been hard racing with us, with us two also fighting for the [Formula Regional] championship in 2022 and always fighting each other in whatever category we’ve been in.
“So this definitely helps to understand the other driver more, but it’s always been fair.”
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