MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz claimed victory in the Formula 3 Sprint Race at Imola, giving his championship aspirations a significant lift.
The German racing driver started from the second row, behind his team-mate Bruno del Pino, but the title contender made his way past to claim crucial points in the Sprint.
Del Pino held on for second place with Nikola Tsolov claiming the final spot on the podium for Campos Racing.
Championship leader Rafael Camara made history on Friday as he became the first driver in the history of the series to take pole in the opening three rounds of the season.
He’s just the second driver in the history of F3 to secure three consecutive pole positions – the first being Logan Sargeant in 2020.
With the grid set for Sunday, del Pino lined up from pole position for the Sprint ahead of Tramnitz on the front row.
The Campos duo of Mari Boya and Tsolov started from the second row.
Tramnitz takes F3 Sprint race victory at Imola
At the race start, the Spaniard held onto the lead as Tramnitz attempted to go around the outside into Turn 1, but he backed out of the move.
The only change to the order of the top 10 after Lap 1 was the Rodin Motorsport team-mates as Louis Sharp moved up to seventh ahead of Roman Bilinski.
On Lap 3, Tramnitz used the full force of the DRS on the main straight to take the race lead away from del Pino.
At the same time, Sharp gained two places after passing both of the Prema Racing drivers of Ugo Ugochukwu and Noel Leon to take fifth place.
The Safety Car was called into action on Lap 5 after Nicola Marinangeli pulled to the side of the track with an issue.
His right rear tyre came straight off his AIX racing car after Tosa, leaving him stranded on the side of the track.
Tsolov got a good run on his team-mate and initially got past on the main straight, but on the brakes, Boya took back third place.
However, immediately after the Spanish driver started to tumble down the order with an apparent issue with his Campos car, bringing an end to his race on Lap 10.
The Safety Car returned to the track after the DAMS Lucas Oil driver of Matias Zagazeta came to a stop in the gravel trap at the restart.
At the end of Lap 11, the racing action resumed as Tramnitz once again executed a perfect restart to maintain his lead at the front.
Three laps later, Bilinski found his way past Leon, who later ran wide at Tosa after the ART of Tuukka Taponen took seventh place.
The Mexican driver initially dropped down the order to 10th place before taking ninth back from Santiago Ramos.
Trident driver Noah Stromsted passed Taponen for seventh on Lap 16 as Tramitz continued to hold off del Pino at the front.
MP Motorsport driver Alessandro Giusti took the final point-scoring position off Ramos.
On the penultimate lap, Ugochukwu ran wide at Acque Minerali, handing Bilinski fifth place.
Tranmitz held on for the victory as he crossed the line ahead of del Pino, as the rookie claims his first podium finish in the series.
Tsolov crossed the line in third place ahead of the Rodin pair of Sharp and Bilinski, scoring good points for the team.
Stromsted snatched sixth in the end with Taponen in seventh place, as Ugochukwu finished in eighth after his off moment on the second-to-last lap.
Leon finished in ninth place and Giusti claimed the final point in the Sprint with a 10th place finish.
READ MORE – Rafael Camara makes history with third consecutive pole for F3 Feature Race in Imola
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