F3 Spain: Lindblad boosts title hopes with victory in milestone race

Arvid Lindblad became the first repeat winner in Formula 3 this season, registering a comfortable victory by four seconds from Christian Mansell as the current era of F3 clocked up a century of races.

Following on from his victory in the season-opening Bahrain sprint race, Lindblad was composed at the front in Spain as he moved to fourth in the standings, just 13 points off new leader Leonardo Fornaroli.

Starting from pole position for the first time in F3, Mansell made a textbook start to lead the field into Turn one without a significant challenge from behind. But having extended his lead to over a second on that first tour, Lindblad edged quickly back in to put himself within DRS range of the ART driver, with his first lunge coming on lap four.

Compared to the early phase of the weekend, temperatures were significantly cooler on Sunday, with significant cloud cover and a 20% chance of rain. On lap two, the first reports of drops appearing on visors began to filter through.

Having closed to the gearbox of Mansell, Lindblad wasted no time in executing his move to take lead, using DRS to force his way down the inside into Turn 1 on lap five.

At the same time, Luke Browning (Hitech) progressed past Nikola Tsolov’s ART for third.

Gabriele Mini had arrived in Spain as the championship leader following his victory in the Monaco feature race, but his disastrous Barcelona weekend continued as he reported something loose bouncing around in his cockpit while lapping in P14. Such were the Italian’s struggles that he would eventually finish in P21.

By lap 11 of the 25, Hitech began to suggest to Browning that he should attack Mansell if the tyres would allow, stating that the Australian was “just slow” – Lindblad now 1.6s clear in the lead.

Lap 15 saw the twist come, with the timing screen indicating that the conditions were officially wet, with Mansell making comment of the rainfall specifically in the final sector.

Browning’s challenge on Mansell never truly emerged, as he dropped two seconds off the ART driver. Instead, Browning was forced to deal with the threat from behind as Leonardo Fornaroli, who had passed Tsolov for fourth, closed to within half a second on lap 22 and had a significant pace advantage.

After a preview of what was to come on the penultimate lap, Fornaroli made his move for third on Browning into Turn 1 on the final lap, going side-by-side through the chicane, before completing the move at Turn 3.

With his tyres having dropped off the cliff, Browning also fell behind Oliver Goethe to finish fifth, with the now heavy rain doing nothing to aid his pace.

The late move saw Fornaroli snatch the championship lead on 84 points, with Browning back up to second from Mini and Lindblad.

F3 Spain - race two result

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam	3	25	-				25
2	C. Mansell ART Grand Prix	23	25	+4.400 4.4	4.400			18		2
3	L. Fornaroli Trident	4	25	+5.600 5.6	1.200			15
4	O. Goethe Campos Racing	10	25	+6.400 6.4	0.800			12
5	L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight	14	25	+7.300 7.3	0.900			10		1
6	N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix	25	25	+10.600 10.6	3.300			8
7	A. Dunne MP Motorsport	9	25	+10.900 10.9	0.300			6
8	M. Boya Campos Racing	12	25	+11.800 11.8	0.900			4
9	D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam	1	25	+13.400 13.4	1.600			2
10	N. León Van Amersfoort Racing	20	25	+14.100 14.1	0.700			1
11	S. Ramos Trident	6	25	+14.600 14.6	0.500
12	T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport	7	25	+15.900 15.9	1.300
13	S. Montoya Campos Racing	11	25	+20.400 20.4	4.500
14	C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport	17	25	+21.100 21.1	0.700
15	S. Meguetounif Trident	5	25	+22.400 22.4	1.300
16	C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport	29	25	+23.100 23.1	0.700
17	J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing	28	25	+24.200 24.2	1.100
18	S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing	21	25	+25.800 25.8	1.600
19	M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport	19	25	+27.400 27.4	1.600
20	C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	25	+33.400 33.4	6.000
21	G. Minì Prema Powerteam	2	25	+34.300 34.3	0.900
22	J. Loake Rodin Motorsport	31	25	+37.300 37.3	3.000
23	M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport	18	25	+38.300 38.3	1.000
24	P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport	30	25	+38.900 38.9	0.600
25	T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing	22	25	+39.500 39.5	0.600
26	T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing	26	25	+40.600 40.6	1.100
27	M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight	15	25	+41.300 41.3	0.700
28	K. Sztuka MP Motorsport	8	25	+47.500 47.5	6.200
dnf	L. Van ART Grand Prix	24	24	1 lap					Retirement
dnf	N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing	27	22	3 laps					Retirement
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