After a tumultuous performance in the Silverstone Feature Race, Arthur Leclerc took home his first victory of the Formula 3 season. The outcome also put PREMA Racing on the top step of the podium for the first time this year, and there was a chance that they might finish in first or second place.
After a battle for the runner-up position that went down to the final lap, Zak O’Sullivan and Ollie Bearman crossed the finish line barely 0.051 seconds apart, with the Carlin driver coming out on top. Isack Hadjar, who won the Sprint Race, rounded out the top five, and Caio Collet’s fourth-place finish earned him some valuable points for his overall total.
In the first corner of the race, O’Sullivan successfully blocked Leclerc to keep his lead. Ollie Bearman, a teammate of Jak Crawford’s at PREMA, was able to gain a run on the Wellington Straight because Zane Maloney of Trident was able to squeeze him out of the fight for third place that he was having with Jak Crawford. Maloney made his Trident as broad as possible while the Briton attempted to hang it around the outside of his ship. Bearman failed to back out before entering Luffield, which led to a collision that knocked the Bajan off track and pushed him further down the order.
Collet was in the right place at the right time to make the most of the opportunity, and he stole third place from the PREMA driver by charging up the inside at Copse on Bearman after the PREMA driver lost speed. Up ahead, Leclerc had fought back, and he swept around the outside of O’Sullivan into Stowe while being towed down Hangar Straight. At precisely the same time as the maneuver took place, the safety car was brought out, and Leclerc gave up his position to the British driver. The stalled Van Amersfoort Racing car driven by Franco Colapinto was the root of the problem. It was located on the outskirts of Luffield.
O’Sullivan had a solid restart, but Arthur Leclerc had stuck with him and was able to make the pass stay when DRS was activated on the sixth lap. The Monaco driver took the lead of the race after completing a move around the outside of Brooklands, and despite an opportunity for the British driver to switch back, Leclerc remained in first place throughout the remainder of the competition.
Hadjar and Crawford were engaged in a fierce battle for fifth place when, on lap 8, the two drivers collided with each other. Side-by-side coming out of the final turn and down the main straight, the pair entered Abbey with Crawford on the outside. However, just as the American driver was about to pull ahead, Hadjar narrowly clipped the rear right tyre of the PREMA driver, which caused him to go off the track and drop to position 8.
Both Grégoire Saucy and Roman Stanek were forced to come into the pits at the end of the ninth lap for repairs after they were involved in a minor collision. The driver for Trident was eliminated from the competition, but the driver for ART Grand Prix was permitted to rejoin the race, albeit at a later position.
Another safety car was deployed following an accident for Rafael Villagomez at Copse. After making contact with Nazim Azman, the front wing of the VAR driver’s car became lodged underneath the vehicle, which caused the driver to crash headfirst into the barriers.
The safety car was removed on lap 15, and Martins immediately resumed his charge through the field, pulling a late dive on Frederick into Village to finish ninth.
The next driver to tackle the track was Crawford, and on lap 16, the Frenchman came close to completing an audacious pass on the outside of Stowe. The American’s aggressive defense allowed him to stay ahead of the ART driver, who was forced to take the run-off to avoid making contact with the American. After shifting his concentration back to the front of the car, Crawford was able to pass Jonny Edgar and take sixth place two laps later.
After three circuits had been completed, there was only a 1.5-second gap separating the top five finishers. Bearman had been setting up a move on Collet for a number of circuits prior to finally making the dive into Brooklands on the penultimate lap for third place. Collet had been in the lead for the majority of the race. However, Leclerc did not have any problems and won his third F3 race, which was also his first win of the 2022 season.
However, Arthur Leclerc did not have any problems and won his third F3 race, which was also his first win of the 2022 season.
Bearman continued to maintain tight contact with O’Sullivan and made an attempt to pass Stowe on the penultimate lap. Although the Carlin drivers maintained their position, neither of them had completed their race. Bearman forced his compatriot to take a defensive stance going into the chicane at The Vale, which opened up a lane for him going up the inside at the last corner. Running wheel-to-wheel over the finish line separated by just 0.051 seconds, O’Sullivan just about maintained his hold on second place.
Collet of MP Motorsport was in fourth place, one spot ahead of Hadjar, the winner of the Sprint Race, who rounded out the top five. Following Crawford, who finished in sixth place but turned in the race’s fastest lap, Martins overtook Edgar in the final lap of competition. Both David Vidales and Reece Ushijima finished in tenth place, with Vidales coming in ninth and Ushijima in tenth.
“I’m incredibly thrilled about the win. We gave everything we had,” Arthur Leclerc remarked after the race. At long last, a pleasant and productive weekend in its entirety. ‘We qualified quite well and moved up to the front row of the race. It was a difficult race to hold it in the lead. We had a lot of degrees with the rears, and I was having quite a bit of trouble with the tires, but in the end, we were able to go up to first place. The next stop will be Austria,” Arthur Leclerc said.
Leclerc has moved himself back into contention for the Drivers’ Championship, and he is now only six points behind the leader, Martins, who is driving for ART. Martins currently has 77 points, while Arthur Leclerc has 71. Because of his outstanding performance over the weekend, Hadjar has moved up to third place in the standings with 68 points, while Stanek has fallen to fourth place, only one point ahead of Crawford in fifth place.
In terms of the standings for the teams, PREMA is in a commanding position with 175 points. The ART on 113 is a close second. As a result of Hadjar’s achievements at Silverstone, his Hitech Grand Prix team is now in first place, one point ahead of Trident, with a total of 90 points.
