Ernesto Rivera took his maiden Formula 3 victory in the Austrian Sprint Race, taking the win with a late race lunge on James Wharton.
Wharton was starting on pole with Rivera alongside him. Wharton got a strong start into Turn 1, with Rivera keeping on his gearbox.
Freddie Slater, further down the pack, spun around as he made contact in the tight field fighting of lap 1. Slater was beached in the centre of the track, bringing out a safety car on just the second lap.
The racing went green on Lap 4, with Wharton holding his lead as he led the field around the Red Bull Ring. Rivera remained in second with Jin Nakamura and Pedro Clerot close on his tail.
Rivera was closing on Wharton into Lap 6, with the gap falling to just 0.4s between them. The Red Bull junior looked primed to launch an overtake when a Virtual Safety Car was brought. Fionn McLaughlin’s front wing was sitting in the middle of the track.
On Lap 11, Rivera made a late lunge in Turn 3 on Wharton, narrowly avoiding contact, but wasn’t able to get past. He swapped to the outside, trying to make it stick around Turns 4 and 5, but was just too far back.
On the next lap, Rivera was on it again, taking the inside line on Wharton. He had a better chance than in the previous lap, but Wharton’s PREMA was defending aggressively.
Rivera looked for the lead
Behind the top two, Nakamura and Clerot were also racing side by side, fighting for the final podium position.
Rivera tried for a third time into Turn 3, braking late on the PREMA driver and holding strong into Turn 4, finally taking the lead of the race.
Clerot was getting impatient as the second half of the Sprint Race was underway, the Rodin driver repeating Rivera’s moves, making lunges into Turn 4. He was alongside the Hitech driver in Turn 5, but Nakamura closed the door and held onto third.
Rivera was able to break DRS to Whart, which pushed the PREMA driver down in the fight for third place. Clerot was closing in on Nakamu, taking the outside of Turn 3 and getting ahead of Nakamura. Then, taking the outside of Turn 4 to make it past Wharton into second.
Nakamura followed Clerot into third with Wharton dropping off the podium places.
Stomsted and Le finished fifth and sixth, with Taponen and Kato closing out the Sprint Race points scorers.
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