It took Matteo Nannini a season and a half, but the 18-year-old finally scored his maiden FIA Formula 3 win in Hungary. The HWA driver is storming the ranks and leaving his team mates in the dust.
A podium Matteo Nannini already had in FIA F3. Two in fact: a first in 2020 when he was still driving for Jenzer at Barcelona and earlier this season in the first round with his new team HWA again at Barcelona. But that first win still eluded him. That is, until the F3 grid landed in Hungary.
And to think the weekend did not even start that great with 13th in qualifying due to traffic, just one place from reverse pole. The difference between starting first and, well, 13th. He did manage to secure a point in Race 1, finishing in 10th. A good result which meant he would start Race 2 in third.
Nannini had only Roman Stanek and Enzo Fittipaldi in front of him and jumped the Czech Hitech GP driver on the first lap. On lap four he passed Fittipaldi and didn’t look back. The young Italian was ecstatic: “Finally a victory! We came very close to it already twice this year, we lost it with a couple of laps to go and it was very frustrating. I think that today’s race has shown my potential and what we can do. The weekend didn’t start in the best way, but it was a good thing because we were under pressure and we were more motivated. It paid off and we got a great result. I hope this is the first of many victories!”
There was still Race 3 but that didn’t pan out as hoped due to a slow pit stop. “Race 3 was very turbulent due to the sudden rain. We opted for a different strategy but it didn’t pay off, because of a very slow pit stop and because of the Safety Car coming out just a few laps from the checkered flag. Anyway, summing up, I can take away many positives from this weekend.”
Nannini has entered the top ten with his two points finishes. He is now ninth with 42 points.
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