Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak took his first win and the first win for a Thai driver in Formula 3 in Saturday’s sprint race at Silverstone after starting from reverse-grid pole. Feeder Series spoke to Inthraphuvasak and podium finishers Martinius Stenshorne and Mari Boya about the race.

By Kaylene Lau

Polesitter Inthraphuvasak made a good start to maintain the lead heading into the first corner. Christian Ho, who started alongside him on the front row, came under pressure from Theóphile Naël, who managed to get the move done on Ho at Turn 6 to take second. 

On the first lap, Prema’s Brando Badoer hit feature race polesitter Nikola Tsolov at Turn 4 and ended up stranded in the gravel on the inside of the corner. The safety car was brought out for three laps so that Badoer’s car could be retrieved. Tsolov kept going, albeit at the back of the field. 

The safety car ended on lap four, and Inthraphuvasak got a good launch at the restart to maintain the lead of the race. Ho quickly came under pressure from Martinius Stenshorne, who lunged down the Singaporean driver’s inside at Turn 4 to take third. Championship leader Rafael Câmara also overtook teammate Charlie Wurz for 10th at Luffield.

Naël overtook Inthraphuvasak for the lead at Turn 4 on lap six and created a gap of 0.7 seconds by the next lap. Naël’s overtake was noted by race control, however, for being executed after leaving the track on exit at Turn 3. Van Amersfoort Racing instructed him to give the place back to Inthraphuvasak, which he did on lap 10.

On lap seven, Boya easily overtook León, who got a slow start from third, for sixth at Stowe. Just in front, Ho started to struggle in fourth, dropping back from third-placed Stenshorne and into the clutches of ART’s Laurens van Hoepen. On lap eight, Van Hoepen overtook Ho on the inside at Vale to take fourth. 

Now back in second, Naël faced pressure from Stenshorne as he tried to retake the lead from Inthraphuvasak. Tramnitz also looked to be struggling, dropping to 11th and out of the points-scoring positions on lap 11 as Ugo Ugochukwu, Câmara and Wurz passed him.

By lap 13 of 18, Inthraphuvasak had built a gap of 1.2s between him and Naël, who was struggling with tyres and falling into the clutches of Stenshorne. Stenshorne used DRS to pass him for second down the Hangar Straight the next lap and began chasing Inthraphuvasak for first. 

On lap 13, Ugochukwu continued his rise by overtaking teammate León at Stowe for seventh as Ho fell into the clutches of Boya in sixth. The Spaniard made the move at Turn 5 on lap 14 for fifth, and Ugochukwu followed him through two laps later at Brooklands to take sixth. 

Running in fourth, Van Hoepen was now within DRS range of Naël and chasing him for the final podium position. Van Hoepen got his nose ahead at Stowe, but Naël took the place back on the inside into Vale after running wide at Stowe. As the pair battled, they went wide on exit, and Boya capitalised to pass both for the final podium position. Naël received a 10-second place penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage for the overtake on Van Hoepen, dropping him to 12th and out of the points. 

Stenshorne was 1.2s behind Inthraphuvasak as the final lap began, and the Campos driver extended his lead to 1.748s by the flag to take his first F3 win. With Boya crossing the line third, Campos closed the gap to Trident in the teams’ championship from 31 to 17.

Inthraphuvasak also became the first Thai driver to win a race in series history. The last driver to have done so at the third tier was Alex Albon in 2016 at Sepang in predecessor series GP3.

“It’s an honour to carry the Thai flag with me and to put it on the top of the podium today,” Inthraphuvasak told Feeder Series. “It’s really good, I think. The sport is growing a lot in Thailand, and there’s news of Formula 1 hosting an event in Thailand soon. 

“It’s really good to see the sport is becoming more and more famous in the country, as well as Alex who’s done it here.” 

Stenshorne and Boya took back-to-back podiums with second- and third-place finishes respectively. Stenshorne inherited the victory in the Austria feature race after original winner Tsolov’s disqualification, while Boya was promoted to the podium after crossing the line fourth.

“In the beginning of the season, we struggled a little bit for race pace, or the race pace was a bit up and down, especially in Barcelona,” Stenshorne said. “I had two good starts, but I was dropping back – well at least in the second race, not so much in the first race. But from the Red Bull Ring at least, the race pace has been quite good.” 

Boya, who had a difficult start to the season with no points in the season opener, said that there had been ‘many things outside of [his] control’ in the opening races. 

“Not even the team could do anything better at some points, but the only thing that changes [is] that we are getting cleaner weekends and I am trying to finish all the laps that I can do even if it’s not a 100% lap,” Boya told Feeder Series. 

“But I think with the potential and the performance we are showing, we don’t need to be that much on the risk every time. I think it’s helping to be more or less there always, and then in the races, we have a lot of laps to make moves and to be well.”

Van Hoepen remained in fourth, with Ugochukwu finishing fifth and front-row starter Ho sixth for his best result of the season. León finished seventh ahead of the Trident duo of Câmara and Wurz, with Roman Bilinski rounding out the top 10.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency