Aston Martin junior Mari Boya thrust himself into Formula 3 title contention by winning a rain-hit, red-flagged Silverstone feature race on wet tyres as championship frontrunners Rafael Câmara, Tim Tramnitz and Nikola Tsolov all started on dry tyres and failed to score.

By Michael McClure

The threat of precipitation became clear in the minutes before the start of the feature race, which was delayed by five minutes as rain began to fall. That gave teams and drivers the chance to switch to wet tyres, and 16 of them, led by fourth-place starter Boya, chose to do so in the minutes before the start at 9:35 local.

Polesitter Tsolov held the lead off the line over fellow front-row starter Ugo Ugochukwu, but the question of which of them got the better start proved academic. Boya rocketed into the lead by Turn 1 and romped away, with Théophile Naël soaring from ninth to second after only a few corners.

By the time the field reached Copse, Tsolov had fallen to eighth, and he was 13th as he crossed the line to complete his first racing lap. All of the wet runners bar Alessandro Giusti, who spun exiting Brooklands on the opening lap, had filed ahead of the slick-shod drivers by the end of lap two.

From there, the race became a waiting game for the dry runners, who had two options: wait for the rain to stop and the track to dry, or pit for wets and hope for a safety car to close up the pack and mitigate the time loss of the stop. As the rain continued and the forecast showed an increase in its intensity, drivers ultimately pursued the latter option.

As the last of the dry runners made the swap as the leaders completed lap 10, the heavens opened – and chaos quickly unfolded. At the end of that lap, Louis Sharp spun out of eighth place at Club, one of the wettest sections of the track, and beached himself in the gravel. The safety car was deployed to recover his stricken Rodin Motorsport car. 

Even at reduced speeds behind the safety car, the 28 remaining drivers struggled to keep their cars pointed the right way. Championship leader Câmara, the final car on the lead lap in 22nd, nearly spun at Chapel and dipped two wheels into the gravel at Stowe, while polesitter Tsolov and Austria feature race winner Martinius Stenshorne both skidded off the circuit.

The treacherous conditions prompted race control to bring out the red flag at the end of lap 14 at 10:11 local. The rain appeared to ease during the stoppage and a race resumption time of 10:25 was given, but forecasts showed heavy rain set to hit the circuit just minutes later.

Race control thus halted proceedings at 10:23, enshrining Boya as the race winner. With results were taken from the 12th of 22 scheduled laps, the Campos Racing driver received 19 points for his first feature race victory and third consecutive podium finish.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Naël held onto second despite a staunch challenge from Prema Racing’s Noel León in the laps before the red flag.

Roman Bilinski started 15th but ended the race fourth, picking off Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak on lap five and Laurens van Hoepen on lap six. The Dutchman crossed the line fifth but dropped to seventh after earning a five-second penalty for jumping the start, elevating Christian Ho and James Wharton to fifth and sixth respectively.

Santiago Ramos finished eighth ahead of Bruno Del Pino, with sprint race winner Inthraphuvasak claiming the final point after tumbling down the order in the laps before the red flag.

With none of the top three in the championship finishing inside the top 10, Câmara on 120 points retains a 27-point lead in the drivers’ standings over 18th-place finisher Tramnitz, with 20th-place finisher Tsolov 29 points behind and Boya only 35 points behind. The teams’ championship lead, however, changed hands, with Campos on 210 points now leading Trident by three points following Boya’s victory.

Thunder and lightning strikes were reported after the podium ceremony was complete. The rain then abated, and blue skies have appeared over parts of the circuit at the time of publication. 

Additional reporting by Tori Turner and Martin Lloyd

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency