F3 Austria: Tsolov holds off Stenshorne for second win of the season

Nikola Tsolov became the second two-time winner of the Formula 3 season with victory in the Austrian sprint race

Nikola Tsolov has secured his second win of the Formula 3 campaign in the Austrian sprint race, holding off Martinius Stenshorne and Christian Mansell in a final-lap restart after a late safety car.

Starting from pole, Stenshorne immediately surrendered the lead of the 21-lap race to Mansell after making a tardy launch. Having attempted to regain the position on the run to Turn 4, things then got worse as a second ART of Tsolov ran around the outside at that corner and relegated the Norwegian to third.

Before the opening lap reached its conclusion, the safety car was called into action as the marshals took to the track to recover Kacper Sztuka’s MP Motorsport entry after damage caused in a collision involving Charlie Wurz (Jenzer) and Joseph Loake (Rodin) forced him to retire.

The interruption also gave championship contender Dino Beganovic a chance to reset at the rear of the pack following a Turn 1 spin which had dropped the Prema driver from eighth.

From the restart, the field remained largely in a single DRS train as Mansell and Tsolov duelled for the lead with pass and counter-pass moves largely at turns three and four, both drivers taking full advantage of the three DRS zones at the Red Bull Ring.

But it was Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident) who performed the move of the race, skimming the gravel on the exit of Turn 5 to take Nikita Bedrin (AIX) for 15th on lap 11.

Just as Mansell dropped behind Stenshorne to the final step on the podium, the race was interrupted by the safety car for the second time after Sebastian Montoya made heavy contact with the wall before his Campos entry came to a halt in the middle of the track.

The incident was triggered when he ran wheel-to-wheel with Alex Dunne approaching Turn 4, with Montoya taking to the grass to continue the battle before losing traction and spinning across the front of the MP Motorsport car.

With only a one-lap shootout to negotiate, Tsolov controlled the restart and led the pack across the line with the top places remaining unchanged; although Mansell questioned the moves of the top two, hinting they had been completed under yellow flag or safety car conditions.

Clarifying what had happened in the post-race press conference, Mansell retracted any suggestion of wrongdoing, revealing he had slowed in reaction to a beep that warns of a yellow flag somewhere on the track instead of waiting for the second tone which confirms a virtual or full safety car.

In the championship battle, Gabriele Mini closed the gap to Fornaroli and Luke Browning, with four points now covering the lead trio after neither of the top two troubled the scoreboard in 12th and 11th respectively.

F3 Austria - Sprint race results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix	25	21	-
2	M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight	15	21	+0.600 0.6	0.600
3	C. Mansell ART Grand Prix	23	21	+1.200 1.2	0.600
4	A. Dunne MP Motorsport	9	21	+1.600 1.6	0.400
5	L. Van ART Grand Prix	24	21	+3.100 3.1	1.500
6	G. Minì Prema Powerteam	2	21	+3.400 3.4	0.300
7	O. Goethe Campos Racing	10	21	+3.700 3.7	0.300
8	T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport	7	21	+4.000 4.0	0.300
9	N. León Van Amersfoort Racing	20	21	+4.400 4.4	0.400
10	S. Meguetounif Trident	5	21	+4.800 4.8	0.400
11	L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight	14	21	+5.200 5.2	0.400
12	L. Fornaroli Trident	4	21	+6.100 6.1	0.900
13	N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing	27	21	+7.000 7.0	0.900
14	C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport	29	21	+7.600 7.6	0.600
15	D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam	1	21	+7.600 7.6	0.000
16	C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	21	+8.300 8.3	0.700
17	M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport	19	21	+8.600 8.6	0.300
18	M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport	18	21	+8.700 8.7	0.100
19	J. Loake Rodin Motorsport	31	21	+9.100 9.1	0.400
20	C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport	17	21	+9.500 9.5	0.400
21	T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing	22	21	+9.800 9.8	0.300
22	M. Boya Campos Racing	12	21	+10.700 10.7	0.900
23	P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport	30	21	+10.900 10.9	0.200
24	S. Ramos Trident	6	21	+11.000 11.0	0.100
25	J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing	28	21	+11.300 11.3	0.300
26	S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing	21	21	+11.700 11.7	0.400
27	T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing	26	21	+20.600 20.6	8.900
dnf	A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam	3	17	4 laps					Retirement
dnf	S. Montoya Campos Racing	11	16	5 laps					Retirement
dnf	K. Sztuka MP Motorsport	8	20						Retirement
View full results