Beckmann victorious in wet F3 race, as Viscaal’s penalty costs him win

David Beckmann took victory in Sunday’s in FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race in what was a wet encounter at the Hungaroring.

The German started the race on reverse-grid pole ahead of Clement Novalak, Dennis Hauger and Alex Peroni.

Beckmann kept hold of the lead until the second lap when Hauger found more grip on the outside into Turn 2 to put his Hitech car at the front of the field.

There were a couple of collisions throughout the first few laps with Igor Fraga and Bent Viscaal making contact on the exit of Turn 12, while Lukas Dunner and Cameron Das came to blows at the next corner.

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The top ten at the end of Lap 4 consisted of Hauger leading Beckmann from Novalak, Logan Sargeant, Richard Verschoor, Oscar Piastri, Peroni, Sebastian Fernandez, Viscaal and Max Fewtrell. Liam Lawson and Alex Smolyar were up to 13^th and 14^th, each gaining 13 places across the opening four tours.

Lawson’s drive was all undone though, as the Kiwi lost power coming into Turn 1 on Lap 8 and stopped his Hitech. The Safety Car came out as a consequence, which allowed the field to bunch up again.

On the restart, Viscaal in the MP Motorsport was flying in fifth, overtaking Sargeant around the outside into Turn 3, albeit by going off the racetrack. The stewards would later penalise the Dutchman, handing him a five-second time penalty for gaining an unfair advantage.

To add insult to injury, Viscaal was also given five more seconds for the collision with Fraga earlier on, meaning he had to pull out a ten-second gap over everyone else in order to win the race.

Novalak was also having problems, struggling to find grip on the surface and was overtaken by Sargeant, dropping down to fifth on Lap 12. Piastri and Verschoor also got past the Frenchman, making it three positions lost in a single lap.

Viscaal was on a mission to make up ten seconds in the second half of the race. He had passed Beckmann for second on Lap 13 before getting ahead of Hauger for the lead later on the same lap.

At the back though, a dreadful weekend came to an end for one the championship contenders. Frederik Vesti puled to the side of the track after contact with another driver before Turn 2.

His PREMA team-mates Sargeant and Piastri went head-to-head, as the Australian pulled alongside the American to go up to fourth, which would see him extend his lead in the championship over his nearest rival.

Six laps remaining and Beckmann finally got past Hauger into Turn 1 for second place and then set his sights on closing up to Viscaal.

Hauger meanwhile was going backwards, as Piastri capitalised to put his car up into the podium positions.

The race for Viscaal was further compounded in the final few laps. Federico Malvestiti crashed his Jenzer into the barrier on the exit of Turn 4, meaning the Safety Car wiped out not only his six-second gap to Beckmann in second but also his 12-second margin to Hauger in third.

Once the field came together for the chequered flag, the Dutchman would cross the line first but would ultimately fall to 17^th with the ten seconds added to his time.

Therefore, Beckmann took his first race win in the new era of FIA Formula 3 from Piastri and Hauger on the podium. Sargeant was fourth ahead of Verschoor and Theo Pourchaire. Alex Smolyar completed a remarkable race for ART on his 19^th birthday to climb up to 7^th after starting 27^th on the grid.

Sebastian Fernandez, Enzo Fittipaldi and Alex Peroni completed the top-ten point scorers while Piastri gets the extra two points for the fastest lap.

Looking at the championship standings following the Hungarian round, it is Oscar Piastri who extends his lead in the championship to 26 points over Logan Sargeant in second. Theo Pourchaire with his brilliant performances this weekend including his win on Saturday is up to third and only another two points behind the leader.

The next round of FIA Formula 3 will be on the weekend of the British Grand Prix on 31 July – 2 August.