Campos’ driver, Josep María Martí, won the F3 race of the Spanish Grand Prix, so after qualifying, the Barcelona crowd can applaud him as the main race winner, too. Franco Colapinto was second, and Dino Pejanović was third.
In the most prominent event of the Formula 3 race in Spain, a Spanish driver from a Spanish team managed to start from pole position: Josep Maria Marti, who started the first major race of his career on Friday.
The surprise man of the weekend, Taylor Barnard, started from second, who qualified on the front row with Jenzer, who consolidated third place in the field most of the evening.
The second row involved Franco Colapinto and Dino Bejanovic, the third Paul Aaron and the point leader Gabriele Bortoletto, who was able to extend his advantage yesterday after finishing fourth in the sprint.
His first rival, Gabriele Mini, only started from 18th, closing up to 8th in the sprint, but he was penalized for a spin by Christian Mansell, so his impressive performance was canceled out. Before the start, the young Italian was of course confident he could repeat his transgressions today – and this time he wouldn’t have problems with the rules either.
Barnard made a great start and tried to overtake at the first corner, but Marty defended his position and the Briton left the track, and after returning he had to line up behind his rival. So, in the first two places, the ranking remained unchanged at the end, as well as in the third and fourth places.
Bortoleto improved one place on the first lap: he pushed Aaron behind him. He did not have the opportunity to make more maneuvers after the start, because the safety car was sent to the track due to the disqualification of Luke Browning (the runner-up in the sprint collided with Leonardo Fornaroli, then several laps later his car stopped on the track).
After the start of the second half, Marty was even more confident: this time Barnard could not come close to the overtaking distance of the Spaniard.
After the start and after the safety car stage, the Mini gained two positions each, thus rising to fourteenth in a relatively short time.
By the tenth lap, Marty had increased his advantage over Barnard by more than a second, which was crucial for him as he “prevented” his rival from opening the DRS. From then on, Barnard had to watch his back as Colapinto got closer and closer to him. In the eleventh round, he beat the Argentine: he took second place.
On the following lap, Bejanović also overtook the surprise man in the time trial, who consequently dropped to fourth place halfway through the race. At the start of the seventeenth lap, Bortoleto also pushed Barnard behind him, who lost position to Aaron and Mary Buea after finding it increasingly difficult to maintain his good pace in the race.
Meanwhile, at the front, Marty was confidently advancing towards victory: Colapinto could not get close to him, but built up a decent lead over Bejanović, who was six seconds behind him. The Swede was no longer in such a relaxed position that Bortoletto was constantly approaching him and pulling Aron along with him.
Yes, it was a chase race, but the last laps didn’t make any change in the lead, so Marty took his third win of the year – and most important of all, because this time he took pole in Sunday’s race, and more. in front of his home audience. With his victory, he also took a big step up the league standings: he rose to second place, behind Bortoleto.
Colapinto finished second, Bejanović third, and the list leader earned more valuable points and finished fourth. Aaron finished fifth, Pouya sixth, and Sebastian Montoya, Zack O’Sullivan, Barnard and Mansell also scored points in the race.
The Spanish Grand Prix continues with the main Formula 2 race, which you can follow live from 11:20 on M4 Sport!
