Rodin’s Callum Voisin won his maiden FIA Formula 3 race in a Spa-Francorchamps Feature dominated by Safety Car cautions.
Voisin kept his cool to lead Sebastian Montoya and Leonardo Fornaroli over the line, as the latter’s title rivals had forgettable races.
The sun shone through misty skies Sunday morning as the F3 field rolled out of pit lane, but there were still damp patches littered around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Voisin lined up from pole, with the championship contenders scattered throughout the grid.
Prema’s trio of drivers had lowly starting berths, points leader Gabriele Mini lining up 11th alongside team-mate and Sprint Winner Dino Beganovic in 12th.
Meanwhile, Arvid Lindblad started from 27th on the grid, but he had made light work of charging through to just outside the points in Saturday’s Sprint.
Fornaroli and Luke Browning had more favourable starting positions, third and seventh respectively.
Voisin led calmly at lights out, but McLaren junior Alexander Dunne, starting alongside him, fell to fourth behind Campos’ Montoya and Trident’s Fornaroli as further back there was drama at La Source.
Mini, starting mid-pack, got spun out and dropped down to 29th at La Source.
Oliver Goethe and Cian Shields also wound up with punctures in the opening lap chaos.
Out front, Voisin and Montoya went straight on at Les Combes proving how tricky the damp conditions were at the start of the 15 lap race.
By the start of Lap 3, the Safety Car was called into action for the first time with Tuukka Taponen and Martinius Stenshorne colliding, the latter spinning and the former left with nowhere to go at Stavelot.
As the field toured the circuit under caution, Voisin led from Montoya and Fornaroli with Dunne and Sami Meguetounif completing the top five.
Browning was circulating in seventh, Beganovic 13th, Lindblad 15th and Mini still a lowly 21st.
As it stood, Mini would surrender the championship lead to Fornaroli by a single point.
On Lap 6 of 15, race direction declared the Safety Car period would end, allowing for a sprint in all but name to close out proceedings.
Voisin backed up the field, weaving to and fro ahead of the final chicane, which is where he decided to pull the pin and lead the field back to racing speeds.
The top three held their positions through the opening portion of Lap 7, but Dunne lost fourth to Meguetounif at Les Combes.
But only after half a lap of green flag running, the Safety Car was called into action again, with Sophia Floersch and Jospeh Loake tangling at Rivaeg, the Alpine Junior’s race ending in the gravel and Loake touring slowly around the rest of the circuit at the back of the field.
This time, the Safety Car was called in at the end of Lap 9 with Voisin once again tasked with restarting the race.
Once again he backed up the field, but this time around he roared back to racing speeds ahead of the final chicane and the tactic proved fruitful as he comfortably led at the start of Lap 10.
Lindblad chances of scoring were dashed as he was tagged by Christian Mansell at Rivage and then Mari Boya stuffed his Campos car into the barriers at Speakers Corner, triggering the third Safety Car of the race.
Replays showed Boya, suffering from a puncture after being tagged by Charlie Wurz, was powerless to control his lame Campos machine as it strayed into the gravel and latterly the barriers.
Lap 13, and the Safety Car was called in, but whether the F3 field could complete two clean laps of running to complete the race was an important question.
Voisin pulled the pin even earlier this time around, getting up to speed around Blanchimont and again, leading comfortably through La Source.
The Rodin driver kept Montoya at bay through the Kemmel straight and Les Combes, but Meguetounif had no such luck with Van Amersfoort’s Noel Leon, surrendering fourth place.
Voisin had the gap to in front up to eight-tenths of a second for the start of the final lap as DRS was enabled.
But it was no matter as the Briton kept calm and collected to bag his maiden F3 win with Montoya and Fornaroli completing the podium and reclaiming the championship lead.
Leon took fourth ahead of Meguetounif and Hitech’s Browning.
Jenzer’s Max Esterson, Trident’s Santiago Ramos and MP Motorsport duo Tim Tramnitz and Dunne rounded out the top-10 as Mini’s fightback ended in 13th.
Despite going scoreless, Prema bagged the Team’s Championship with a round to spare, the Italian outfit’s fifth such success in the modern F3 era.
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