BARCELONA ROUND ANALYSIS: Last-gasp laps and fast starters

25 June 2024

It was a tricky weekend in Barcelona for everyone along the pitlane around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a very familiar venue for all involved.

With in-season testing taking place earlier in the season around the same venue, the usually tight margins in Formula 3 were compacted even more, making finding that final hundredth of a second even more crucial than usual.

Verstappen-esque from Lindblad

In Sunday’s Feature Race, Arvid Lindblad took top honours for his second race victory of his rookie season following success earlier this year in Sakhir’s Sprint.

The Red Bull Junior Team driver’s route to victory echoed that of Max Verstappen’s in the Formula 1 Grand Prix later in the afternoon.

It was decisiveness at the start that dictated both the F1 and F3 races, with Verstappen dispatching George Russell early on to launch into a the lead. Perhaps the multiple F1 World Champion had been watching Lindblad’s efforts over his morning coffee?

The PREMA Racing driver made an early opportunity count, going around the outside of Christian Mansell at Turn 1 on Lap 5 to take the race lead and escape into the distance.

It was a pivotal move as in free air, he could protect his Hard Pirelli tyres without fighting in the turbulent wake of the car ahead, something that limited plenty of his rivals further back.

By moving into the lead without using up much performance from his tyres, Lindblad could afford to measure out the tyre life and build up a comfortable lead so when late-race rain arrived, he had a small margin to spare should anything have gone awry.

Big picture Browning

Browning may have lost out on a podium but he has kept himself right in contention with his scoring streak

Things didn’t go exactly according to plan for Luke Browning on Sunday, with the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver losing the final spot on the podium to title rival Leonardo Fornaroli on the final lap of the Feature Race.

It was a bitter pill after the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver looked to have judged the race just right to maintain his spot on the rostrum while repelling the threats from behind in a tricky race for the top 10.

Stuck in a DRS train for the early phase of the race, Browning eventually lost touch with ART Grand Prix’s Mansell in second, leaving him vulnerable to those behind with the Drag Reduction System in play.

But the Williams Driver Academy talent was smart in his defensive driving, maximising his launch onto the main straight almost every lap to establish a big enough margin that even with DRS, nobody was close enough to make a lunge into the first corner for position.

Unfortunately for him, Trident’s Fornaroli was also managing things well, and the Italian was able to get the better of Browning before the chequered flag.

Still, the Hitech driver maintained his impressive streak of finishing in the top five in every Feature Race this season, and he is still in touch with the Championship leader heading to Spielberg, just five points adrift.

Last season may have seen Browning’s eagerness to stay on the podium result in a late-race collision that so often took him out of contention in 2023. In 2024, the Briton put in a mature drive to take the points available. A bonus fastest lap point could also prove pivotal by the end of the season at Monza.

Last over the line

Mansell secured Pole late in the Qualifying session and perhaps crucially, after all of his rivals had set their times

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a venue every driver knows thoroughly and could probably drive with their eyes closed such is the kind of mileage they’ve accumulated already at this stage of their careers.

So, it’s no wonder then that the margins are so fine in Qualifying, with teams also well versed with years of data to pour over, including from 2024 with in-season testing taking place there in April.

Finding every last performance advantage then is paramount to success, especially for those around the top of the times where the phenomenon of diminishing returns begins to creep in as they deliver their fastest laps.

Interestingly though, Pole changed hands four times in the final moments of the session, with Mansell the last driver that started in the top 10 to complete their Qualifying lap when the track was theoretically at its best.

With the gap to Lindblad a knife-edge 0.036s, running just a handful of seconds later than rivals can make the crucial difference in laptime.

Four drivers that started inside the top six in the Feature Race set their laps after Lindblad, as those final hundredths of a second began to count for more as the clock ticked down to zero.