Written by Sean McKean
After one of the craziest FIA F3 races ever, it was Arvid Lindblad who defeated the rest to win the Silverstone feature race. This victory ties him for first on the all-time winners' list at four.
Lindblad also becomes the very first driver to sweep the weekend of races in an FIA F3 weekend.
As it unfolded
Once the drivers took to the grid for what was a dry race, the rain started to pick up. As a result, many teams switched to the wet tyres; however, Rodin teammates Callum Voisin and Piotr Wiśnicki gambled by staying on the slicks.
By the end of the formation lap, five other drivers – including Arvid Lindblad, Gabriele Minì, and Tim Tramnitz – took the option to start on slicks.
Although Luke Browning got off the line well, Voisin was easily carving through the field – moving up to fourth by the time the safety car came out at the end of the first lap. The intervention was for a spin by Cian Shields in Turn 3.
Under the safety car, many others pit onto the slick tyres as well.
The race quickly resumed on Lap 3, and it only took six corners for the reigning GB3 champion to take the lead. Whilst this happened, it was chaos in the midfield with drivers jockeying for track position on all different compounds.
This chaos only lasted briefly. Coming out of Turn 5, Alex Dunne went wide as he hit the Wellington Straight then rejoined the racing surface after hitting the grass. Subsequently, VAR’s Sophia Floersch cut across Dino Beganovic in avoidance, spinning around and hitting the wall. Floersch was okay but retired from the race.
Under this second safety car, the rain picked up again, and many decided to go back onto the wets. Furthermore, Voisin – still on the slicks – received a 10-second penalty for an illegal overtake on Max Esterson on Lap 3.
As the safety car came in, Voisin’s fall through the field began, with Browning taking the lead in Turn 1 with the wet tyres.
With the midfield chaos continuing, another crash was brewing. Coming out of Stowe, AIX’s Joshua Dufek went for a spin after being tagged by Sztuka. The Swiss driver spun in front of the field to the inside wall, catching Dunne and Sebastian Montoya and sending them both into the wall hard. All three drivers retired from the incident.
Critically for the slick runners, the location of the incident meant that the pit lane entry would close while the incident was cleared.
The safety car came in with 13 minutes remaining. The top two of Browning and Fornaroli remained unchanged, but Noel León moved into the final podium spot from Esterson.
With 9:10 left, León made it to second from Fornaroli – quickly making his way to leader Browning. However, despite the Mexican’s moves, Voisin, Lindblad, and Minì were carving their way into the top ten from 20th, 21st, and 22nd respectively.
At 5:45 remaining, all three of the primary slick runners were into the top three.
Despite Voisin crossing the line first, it was Arvid Lindblad who crossed the line first to take victory in Silverstone – becoming the first driver in the FIA F3 era to sweep the weekend’s races. Gabriele Minì came home in second to take the championship lead. Callum Voisin finished in third despite a ten-second penalty. Tommy Smith takes a surprising fourth to take his first points of the season. Rounding out the top five was Piotr Wiśnicki.
Provisional Classification:
Arvid Lindblad (Prema Racing)
Gabriele Minì (Prema Racing) [FL]
Callum Voisin (Rodin Motorsport)
Tommy Smith (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Piotr Wiśnicki (Rodin Motorsport)
Oliver Goethe (Campos Racing)
Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident)
Luke Browning (Hitech GP)
Nikita Bedrin (AIX Racing)
Noel León (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Laurens van Hoepen (ART Grand Prix)
Sami Meguetounif (Trident)
Christian Mansell (ART Grand Prix)
Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport)
Nikola Tsolov (ART Grand Prix)
Santiago Ramos (Trident)
Kacper Sztuka (MP Motorsport)
Max Esterson (Jenzer Motorsport)
Dino Beganovic (Prema Racing)
James Wharton (Hitech GP)
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (AIX Racing)
Matías Zagazeta (Jenzer Motorsport)
Mari Boya (Campos Racing)
Joseph Loake (Rodin Motorsport)
Charlie Wurz (Jenzer Motorsport) [DNF]
Joshua Dufek (AIX Racing) [DNF]
Sebastian Montoya (Campos Racing) [DNF]
Alex Dunne (MP Motorsport) [DNF]
Sophia Floersch (Van Amersfoort Racing) [DNF]
Cian Shields (Hitech GP) [DNF]
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