Formula 3’s trip to Austria had plenty of excitement with some of the closest battles on track this season. Feeder Series analyses the main stories that emerged from the sixth round in Austria.

By Tori Turner

Browning retakes the championship lead after second win

Hitech’s Luke Browning became the first driver to win two feature races this season, after taking a lights-to-flag victory in Austria’s feature race. Despite stating that the feature would not be an easy win for him to achieve, Browning had a perfect race, with the drivers behind him unable to pose a threat to his victory.

Browning did not need to use any defensive moves throughout the race, staying ahead of the field as they battled for position behind him. By the end of the first lap, he had acquired over a half-second gap to Dino Beganovic in second. The Prema driver remained in Browning’s DRS and ended up being the only driver who could come close to him throughout the feature. On Lap 17, Beganovic looked to make a move going into Turn 4 but ultimately backed out of an overtake. Later battles with his teammate allowed Browning to pull even further ahead, finishing almost two seconds ahead when he took the chequered flag.

Browning’s sprint race was not as fortunate as he was hindered by a three-place grid penalty for impeding Beganovic’s final lap in qualifying. Starting 15th on the grid, Browning made up two positions to 13th on the opening lap, even after being pushed off track and avoiding Beganovic’s spin. On Lap 5, he performed a double overtake on Lindblad and Bedrin around the outside of Turn 4, moving up to 11th. He overtook Tim Tramitz for 10th on Lap 10 but lost a position while trying to avoid Sebastián Montoya’s crash on Lap 17. 

As a result of winning the most points across the Austrian round, Browning was reinstated as the championship leader after losing it in Barcelona. The two points for his pole position and the further twenty-five for his feature win allowed him to extend his lead to nine points ahead of Gabriele Minì. 

Mansell’s weekend to remember

ART’s Christian Mansell had the best weekend of his F3 career so far in Austria, scoring yet another podium in the sprint and narrowly missing out on another in the feature. 

Mansell challenged his teammate Nikola Tsolov for the sprint win after gaining the race lead in the first corner of the first lap. The two ARTs swapped positions five times throughout the race, keeping it more than respectful during their overtakes. His first win slipped through his fingers when he prematurely reacted to a yellow flag caused by Montoya’s crash. 

“I heard a beep and responded to it out of intuition. The other guys just kept it flat, which in theory is what you should do. You should wait until you get the VSC on the steering wheel, but I just jumped a bit too early,” Mansell explained, informing selected media why he slowed down and ultimately ended up losing two positions on Lap 16 of the sprint.

It was evident that Mansell was disappointed in his ‘rookie error’ in the cool-down room and on the podium, knowing that he could have potentially won his first race if not for his own mistake.

Going into the feature race on Sunday, Mansell lined up on the sixth row of the grid in 11th, knowing he had to charge through the field if he wanted to challenge for more points. He initially lost a place on the opening lap but moved back up to where he started after making a move on teammate Laurens van Hoepen. On Lap 7, he battled with Tim Tramnitz to take the final points position, eventually securing it a lap later. He overtook van Hoepen again into Turn 4, moving up to 9th in the field on Lap 10.

Mansell gained another position when Noel León suffered a puncture on Lap 13. The Mexican driver had made up 11 positions before going off into the gravel. Flashbacks to the sprint appeared on Lap 18 when he battled with Tsolov once again, ultimately coming out on top in 7th, before overtaking Lindblad around the outside for 6th on Lap 19. 

He proved his race was not over yet when he overtook Alex Dunne, who already had a time penalty, on Lap 20. At the start of Lap 22, he made a move on Oliver Goethe, putting him only one position away from the podium. He waited for another two laps to make a lunge on Gabriele Minì into Turn 4, only to lose the position two corners later. Another attempt was made on the final lap, where he went three-wide into Turn 6 with Minì and Beganovic, but he was unable to pass either of them.

Despite being unable to get onto the podium for the second time this weekend, Mansell seemed more than overjoyed, even exclaiming, “That was the best race of my life” on the radio. 

After achieving three podiums in the past three rounds, Mansell is beginning to emerge as another contender for the championship. Entering the Austrian round in 7th overall with 58 points, Mansell’s podium in the sprint and fourth-place finish in the feature added another 20 points to his total. As a result, the Australian now sits in 5th place with 78 points, only 28 points off leader Luke Browning.

It wasn’t just Mansell who achieved his best result in Austria. His team, ART, scored the most points throughout the weekend – 50 in total – with all their drivers scoring in both races. Tsolov’s win and Mansell’s podium in the sprint, with van Hoepen finishing just below in 5th, gave them their best finish in a race. Their feature race also saw their drivers finish 4th, 6th and 8th, respectively. 

Penalties pose a threat 

Sunday’s feature race saw four drivers receive 10-second time penalties for causing collisions, the most handed out during a race this season. The first penalty was given to Rodin’s Callum Voisin for contact with AIX Racing’s Joshua Dufek at Turn 4. A lap later, MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz made contact with Campos’ Sebastián Montoya around Turn 3 and the outside of Turn 4, resulting in a penalty for the German driver. Both Dufek and Montoya ended up retiring from the race on Lap 5.

MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, having climbed from 9th to 5th, received his penalty next. Before his incident, he appeared to be in the running for a potential podium position or win. Dunne made contact with the rear of Prema’s Arvid Lindblad on Lap 8, demoting the British driver further down the order. Despite his 10-second penalty, Dunne still managed to score a singular point in the race.

The final penalty was handed to Campos’ Mari Boya for making contact with AIX Racing’s Nikita Bedrin around the inside of Turn 3 on Lap 11. Bedrin was left stranded at Turn 3, and a VSC was deployed as marshals pushed his car to the nearest exit.

Whilst there was a significant reduction in qualifying laps being deleted – 50 in 2023 compared to 21 this year – the drivers did not escape breaching track limits in the two races in Austria. Across both the sprint and the feature, a total of 101 lap time cancellations due to track limits were recorded. 

However, the feature was the only race where drivers were penalised for exceeding track limits more than three times. The most common turns for these violations were Turns 1, 3 and 6. Five drivers received time penalties for exceeding track limits: Sami Meguetounif, Cian Shields, Martinius Stenshorne, Tommy Smith and Mari Boya. All received five-second penalties, apart from Meguetounif and Shields, who ended up with 15 seconds worth due to exceeding track limits six times.

A recovery weekend from the title contenders

After a disastrous weekend in Barcelona for Minì and Beganovic, both title contenders were able to reclaim points in Austria. The two Prema drivers returned to their usual qualifying pace, lining up on the grid in 4th and 5th with times that were under a hundredth apart. A spin on the opening lap of the sprint sent Beganovic dwindling down the order, whilst Mini made up three positions to finish 6th. 

During Sunday’s feature, the two teammates battled for 2nd in the final three laps. Minì came out as the victor on the final lap, finishing 2nd with Beganovic just behind in 3rd. Minì’s points across the two races added another 23 points to his total, moving him up to 2nd in the overall standings. Beganovic also made up one position in the standings, finishing the round in 4th with 80 points.

Arvid Lindblad may have qualified in 2nd with a time of 1:20.306, but his weekend failed to reflect his qualifying session. Contact with Tramnitz in the sprint caused him to have a puncture and retire from the race, whilst he immediately lost positions off the line in the feature. He was unable to recover these positions and subsequently lost even more, finishing the race in 7th with only six points to add to his total. 

Leonardo Fornaroli, who gained the most in Barcelona to become the championship leader once more,  had his weekend turned upside down when he exceeded track limits during Friday’s qualifying session. His lap time was deleted, demoting him all the way down to 24th for both of the races. Even with this obstruction to his races, he was able to charge through the field in both races, finishing just outside of the points in 12th during the sprint and managing two points in the feature. Throughout both races, he made up a total of twenty-seven positions. 

Even with a total of two points for the weekend, with four rounds and eight races to go, his title campaign is not over yet. Fornaroli is currently back in 3rd in the standings, 19 points behind championship leader Browning.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency