SPRINT RACE: Home favourite Lindblad dominates to take victory at Silverstone

PREMA Racing’s Arvid Lindblad put in a fantastic performance to take victory in the Silverstone Sprint Race – his third win of this Formula 3 season.

Lining up in second, the British driver took the lead from pole-sitter Noel León at the start before going off into the distance to win the race.

León finished in second while Jenzer Motorsport’s Matías Zagazeta became the first Peruvian driver to stand on a Formula 3 podium after finishing third.

AS IT HAPPENED

It was a great start for Lindblad, as the PREMA driver won out in a three-way battle with pole-sitter León and Zagazeta heading into Turn 1 to take the lead.

Zagazeta initially got ahead of León, but the Van Amersfoort Racing driver fought back through at Maggotts and Becketts to move up to P2. The Jenzer Motorsport rookie then came under attack from Christian Mansell heading into Stowe but managed to stay ahead.

Mansell though then lost a position on Lap 3 as Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin was showing strong pace to move past the ART Grand Prix driver for fourth at the entry to Luffield.

The Virtual Safety Car was needed moments later after Santiago Ramos suffered a puncture following a slight collision with Tommy Smith, with a piece of his tyre needing to be cleared from the racing line near Copse.

The action resumed on Lap 5, but the Safety Car was almost immediately deployed after Max Esterson and Oliver Goethe collided on the entry to Copse, sending both through the gravel and into the barrier.

Both drivers walked away from the incident, and we were back underway at the end of Lap 7, however there was another collision as Tim Tramnitz and Luke Browning made contact going through the Loop.

Tramnitz came in with a damaged front wing while Browning swapped tyres after sustaining a puncture. Both were able to come back out and continue albeit one lap down and at the back of the field.

Tramnitz’s MP Motorsport teammate Alexander Dunne was on the move and got ahead of Charlie Wurz for P6 going down the inside at Stowe, before making his way past Mansell for fifth on Lap 11.

Onto the next lap, and Dunne had dropped back behind Mansell and Wurz to seventh and was looking to retake the position from the Jenzer rookie, but they collided on the Wellington Straight.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed with Wurz’s car parked on the grass, while Dunne came into the pitlane for a front wing change. He continued but came out at the back of the field.

Racing resumed on Lap 14 with Lindblad two and a half seconds clear of León in the lead. Having resisted an earlier attack from Voisin, Zagazeta was now outside DRS range of the British driver.

Just behind in the battle for fifth, a DRS train had formed behind Mansell which included his ART teammate Nikola Tsolov, Gabriele Minì, Sami Meguetounif and Sebastián Montoya.

Montoya though, having started P17, was on a mission and dived down the inside of Meguetounif for P8 at Turn 3.

Onto the final lap, and Lindblad was now well over six seconds clear out in front as he crossed the line to win on home soil. León finished in second while Zagazeta achieved his first Formula 3 podium by finishing third.

Voisin was the next best placed British driver in fourth, while Mansell crossed the line in fifth but dropped down to P11 after exceeding track limits one too many times.

This promoted Tsolov up to P5 ahead of Minì in sixth and Montoya in seventh. Meguetounif finished in eighth ahead of Laurens van Hoepen and his Trident teammate Leonardo Fornaroli.

KEY QUOTE – Arvid Lindblad, PREMA RACING

“Really great win today, so happy to do it at home, and really thankful to the team for a really good car. After a disappointing Quali yesterday, I knew today was the day we had to perform to try and score good points. Happy with the job done today and we will look to tomorrow to try and maximise.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Browning maintains his lead in the Drivers’ Championship heading into the Feature Race but stays on 106 points. Gabriele Minì’s P6 result pulls him to within six points of the Championship lead, while Arvid Lindblad is now up to third on 88 points, one point clear of Leonardo Fornaroli, with Dino Beganovic rounding out the top five on 80.

In the Teams’ Championship, PREMA Racing extend their lead out front and are now on 268 points and are 91 points clear of second-placed ART Grand Prix. Trident stay in third on 147 points, with Campos Racing fourth on 133 points, a point clear of Hitech Pulse-Eight in fifth.

UP NEXT

The Silverstone Feature Race is next up where Championship leader Luke Browning is set to start from pole at his home race. Join us tomorrow with the action set to start at 08:20 local time.