Jin Nakamura made an early move on Brando Badeor to claim his maiden Formula 3 victory in the Sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Badoer was starting on reverse pole position, with Pedro Clerot alongside him on the front row. As the field came to the end of the longest formation lap of the season, Badoer lined up primed to hold his lead in the first corner.
Strong start from Badoer
As the lights went out, Badoer had a strong lunge into the first corner, holding onto the lead. Jin Nakamura made up two places, taking second place by the opening corners.
Clerot was forced to settle for third place. However, the racing was neutralised when a Safety Car was deployed. Further down the order, Freddie Slater and Ugo Ugochukwu, the championship leaders, collided at Les Combes.
Slater was out of his TRIDENT car, and unfortunately, his Sprint Race was over. Meanwhile, Ugochukwu was continuing around the circuit, but with seemingly broken suspensions, his chances of continuing were uncertain.
On lap 5, the track was clear, and the field was ready to go racing again. Badoer led the pack to green, holding onto his lead initially but facing the pressure from Nakamura behind.
Nakamura made a brave move around the outside of Badoer, holding his Hitech steady as he claimed the lead of the race from the Rodin driver.
The battle wasn’t over for Bradoer, with his Rodin teammate, Clerot, closing in on his gearbox. Clerot lunged around the outside of Badoer, trying to swap to the inside of his teammate. Unfortunately, Clerot couldn’t hold the position, with Badoer keeping second place.
Slightly further down the order, Theophile Nael was making strong progress through the field, moving into fifth place on Lap 8 as he used his DRS on the Kemmel Straight to make it past Taito Kato. The Campos driver was in with a chance of the podium if he could continue his charge.
Another Safety Car
Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi ran through the gravel at the exit of Turn 1, which brought out a safety car in the closing stages of the Sprint Race.
The safety car came in with just two laps remaining, leaving one DRS lap for the field to fight for any final positions.
Nakamura took the field in green, but heading into Eau Rouge, Badoer was closing in on the gearbox of the TRIDENT driver, with just 0.4 seconds separating the leader from second place.
Kato made a move, reclaiming fourth place from Nael on Lap 11. Kato and Nael went side by side through the weaving corners, Nael desperate to take sixth place. Nael shoved the ART driver off the track in the fight, but the duo continued on.
Nakamura crossed the finish line claiming his maiden F3 victory, with Brando Badoer crossing behind Nakamura and Clerot finishing third. Mattia Colnaghi and Kato ended the Sprint in fourth and fifth, with Nael in sixth. Tukka Taponen and Rivera closed out the point scorers.
For the Feature Race, Slater will get a second chance around Spa-Francorchamps, starting on pole, while Nakamura and Badoer will start further down in the pack.
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