F3 Australia: Beganovic charges to feature race win over Fornaroli

Dino Beganovic took victory in a Formula 3 Feature race in Melbourne that featured some great battles and even better tyre management skills.

The Prema Racing driver drove a smart race, waiting until the second half of the 23-lap journey to make a move and in the end establishing a telling lead over Leonardo Fornaroli.

Trident’s Fornaroli bolted at the start but his handy gap was almost immediately negated by a Safety Car period, prompted by a clash between local driver Tommy Smith (Van Amersfoort) and Joseph Loake (Rodin).

After the damaged cars were cleared away, Fornaroli tried to establish a DRS-proof gap but Gabriele Mini initially held on, keeping it to just under one second and staying in touch. By lap 12 Fornaroli had his advantage beyond the magic DRS gap and tried to ease away, leaving Mini to fend off Beganovic.

That defence only lasted until lap 13 when, after the Prema team management gave him approval to overtake his team-mate, the Swede took off after Fornaroli. Mini looked to have overworked his tyres, when a lap later Williams junior Luke Browning snatched third and pulled away.

It took only a lap for Beganovic to catch Fornaroli and the Trident pilot looked in no mood to defend the faster car, which sliced past at Turn 9 to take the lead, Fornaroli seemingly content to allow Beganovic to set the pace. But over the final two laps Beganovic broke away, taking his maiden F3 win by 0.89secs.

Fornaroli’s fifth podium finish came after a clever drive, but just as the leading pair had settled down to fight out the win, Browning and Mini staged their own for the final step on the podium. Williams Junior Browning held the edge over the Alpine junior until the penultimate lap, Mini sweeping around the outside of Turn 6.

Browning was nearly 13 seconds clear of fifth placed Charlie Wurz. The rookie had a great maiden Feature race at Albert Park, holding out a fellow second-generation driver, Sebastian Montoya (Campos), for fifth place. Fellow Campos pilots Mari Boya and Nikita Bedrin (PHM AIX) finished seventh and eighth.

Oliver Goethe followed ahead of the best local driver, Christian Mansell, to finish ninth. The ART driver, who ran wide and lost ground at the first restart, went on to finish 10th. The other Australian driver in the race, Tommy Smith, tangled with Joseph Loake on the opening lap, prompting the Safety Car.

Sprint race winner Martinius Stenshorne had a mid-race clash with Joshua Dufek and later reported a punctured tyre. The Hitech driver was classified 26th, the last of the drivers to finish the race.

The results mean that Browning and Fornaroli are now tied for the championship lead on 37 points, with Mini on 32. Beganovic jumps to fourth on 28 ahead of Lindblad on 23 and Tramnitz and Mansell tied on 21.

F3 Melbourne - Feature race resuts:

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam	1	23	41'23.816				25		1
2	L. Fornaroli Trident	4	23	+1.682 41'25.498	1.682			18
3	G. Minì Prema Powerteam	2	23	+3.221 41'27.037	1.539			15
4	L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight	14	23	+4.050 41'27.866	0.829			12
5	C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport	17	23	+16.958 41'40.774	12.908			10
6	S. Montoya Campos Racing	11	23	+21.230 41'45.046	4.272			8
7	M. Boya Campos Racing	12	23	+21.492 41'45.308	0.262			6
8	N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing	27	23	+25.610 41'49.426	4.118			4
9	O. Goethe Campos Racing	10	23	+26.530 41'50.346	0.920			2
10	C. Mansell ART Grand Prix	23	23	+26.785 41'50.601	0.255			1
11	A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam	3	23	+27.009 41'50.825	0.224
12	S. Meguetounif Trident	5	23	+29.437 41'53.253	2.428
13	L. Van ART Grand Prix	24	23	+29.512 41'53.328	0.075
14	M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport	18	23	+30.441 41'54.257	0.929
15	T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport	7	23	+33.023 41'56.839	2.582
16	A. Dunne MP Motorsport	9	23	+33.577 41'57.393	0.554
17	M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport	19	23	+34.067 41'57.883	0.490
18	K. Sztuka MP Motorsport	8	23	+37.812 42'01.628	3.745
19	N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix	25	23	+38.222 42'02.038	0.410
20	C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	23	+42.693 42'06.509	4.471
21	C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport	29	23	+44.080 42'07.896	1.387
22	J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing	28	23	+52.748 42'16.564	8.668
23	P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport	30	23	+1'01.595 42'25.411	8.847
24	S. Ramos Trident	6	23	+1'09.926 42'33.742	8.331
25	N. León Van Amersfoort Racing	20	23	+1'10.635 42'34.451	0.709
26	M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight	15	23	+1'14.235 42'38.051	3.600
dnf	S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing	21	1	+22 Laps 1'54.723	22 Laps				Retirement
dnf	T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing	26	0						Retirement
dnf	J. Loake Rodin Motorsport	31	0						Retirement
dnf	T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing	22	0						Retirement
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