FEATURE RACE: Lindblad overcomes Mansell to win 100th Formula 3 race in Barcelona

Arvid Lindblad became the first repeat winner of the 2024 season after taking victory in the Barcelona Feature Race – the 100th race in FIA Formula 3’s history.

The PREMA Racing rookie overtook pole-sitter Christian Mansell early on in the race before going off into the distance to claim his second win of the campaign, with the ART Grand Prix driver coming home in second ahead of Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli in third.

AS IT HAPPENED

It was as you were at the start with Mansell getting a strong launch from pole to lead Lindblad and his ART teammate Nikola Tsolov.

Oliver Goethe though was the one driver to lose out in the early exchanges as he dropped from fifth to eighth, promoting Luke Browning and Leonardo Fornaroli up to fourth and fifth respectively.

Mansell was coming under pressure from Lindblad for the lead and the PREMA Racing driver’s attack finally paid dividends on Lap 5 as he went round the outside of Mansell at Turn 1 to take the first position. Just behind them, Browning had now got ahead of Tsolov for the third place at the same corner.

Approaching the halfway stage of the race, Mansell was now over a second and a half behind Lindblad, with Browning being told to make the move past the ART driver for P2 as soon as possible.

Goethe was able to get past van Hoepen for P6, with the Dutchman now coming under pressure from Martinius Stenshorne.

On Lap 17, Lindblad was now well over three seconds clear out front while Mansell had escaped from DRS range of Browning. The Hitech driver was now coming under pressure from Tsolov and Fornaroli as they battled for the final spot on the podium.

The Trident driver then made his way past on Lap 22, going round the outside of Tsolov at Turn 1.

Fornaroli now set his sights on Browning up ahead, the gap between the pair just a second. Tsolov though was beginning to struggle on his tyres and lost out to Goethe for P6 on the next lap.

Browning and Fornaroli went wheel-to-wheel for P3 on the penultimate lap and further behind, Stenshorne and van Hoepen were doing the same for P7. However, the McLaren junior and ART rookie collided at Turn 4, leaving both with punctures.

On to the final lap and Fornaroli went around the outside of Browning at Turn 2 to take P3, just as heavy rain hit the track. But this did not disturb Lindblad as he took his second victory of the season ahead of Mansell and Fornaroli to become the youngest Feature Race winner in F3 history.

Goethe also got past Browning on the final lap for P4, while Tsolov took P6 ahead of Alexander Dunne and home favourite Mari Boya. Dino Beganovic wound up in P9 while Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel León took the final points paying position.

KEY QUOTE – Arvid Lindblad, PREMA Racing

“Really good race today, good start, held on to P2 and then was managing for a couple of laps behind Christian, then I saw the pace was quite strong, so I tried to make a move because I knew that I was going to start to suffer if I was behind for too long and on the second DRS lap, I was committed to making the move and then I got into the lead and then I was just manage my pace, manage my tyres to make sure I held a strong pace till the end, everything felt really good, was a bit sketchy in the end with the rain in the last sector but I managed to get over the line and win the race, so super happy, really grateful to the team and really excited now for the upcoming races.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

This result puts Leonardo Fornaroli on 84 points and back at the top of the Drivers’ Standings, five points clear of Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Luke Browning in second and 12 points ahead of PREMA Racing’s Gabriele Minì in third. Arvid Lindblad’s victory sees him move up to fourth on 71 points, while his PREMA teammate Dino Beganovic rounds out the top five with 65 points. In the Teams’ Championship, PREMA have now extended their lead out front and with 208 points sit 68 points clear of second-placed Trident. ART Grand Prix have now jumped back ahead of Campos Racing into third place and with 117 points leading their Spanish rivals by just two points, while Hitech Pulse-Eight rounding out the top five.

UP NEXT

There is not much time to rest as the drivers and the teams will head straight to Spielberg for Round 6, which will take place at the Red Bull Ring from June 28-30.