F3 Austria: Hadjar wins chaotic wet feature race

The Hitech rookie led from pole, with the formation lap starting behind the safety car before a rolling start. 

He rapidly built up a strong lead to second-placed Victor Martins, with a 2.3s gap by lap 8. 

Despite a safety car on lap 21 closing the gap, the young Red Bull junior held on to secure his second win in as many weekends, having also taken victory in last weekend’s sprint race at Silverstone. 

Championship leader Martins held second for ART, while Prema Racing’s Ollie Bearman held off teammate Arthur Leclerc for his third series podium. 

Wet conditions saw running start behind the safety car, while Alexander Smolyar stalled on the grid from 16th. 

Prema’s Jak Crawford made it past Franco Colapinto (VAR) and the Trident-run car of Zane Maloney on the first lap to move into eighth, while Caio Collet was also up two places into 10th for MP Motorsport. 

Up front, Martins was close to Hadjar’s gearbox by lap 3, with a wobble from the leader allowing his fellow Frenchman to close the gap, but he pulled away again quickly. 

David Vidales and Pepe Marti made contact at Turn 3 as Marti tried to move around the outside on lap 7, but the pair both carried on. 

Collet was gaining on Maloney by lap 9 and almost got past at Turn 3 for ninth, but was forced to wait several more laps to get the move done, with the pair making contact briefly at Turn 1 on the 11th tour. 

Hadjar led by 2.5s by the halfway mark, with another 2.5s from Martins to Bearman. 

The yellow flags were waved on lap 15 after Charouz teammates Zdanec Chovanec and Francesco Pizzi collided at turn 10, with Federico Malvestiti spinning behind them. Pizzi was handed a 10s penalty for causing the collision. 

Three laps later, the yellow flags were waved again after Zak O’Sullivan was spun by Pepe Marti, who suffered a broken front wing, with David Vidales also making contact with the pair.   

The Charouz battle continued despite the earlier contact, with Chovanec and Pizzi again making contact on lap 21, causing a safety car. The pair touched at Turn 4, with Chovanec shunted into the air before ending in the gravel trap.  

Racing resumed two laps later, with Jonny Edgar and Crawford making contact at Turn 1, with Stanek and Kaylen Frederick also colliding. Though the pair kept running, Frederick suffered damage and was out at the following turn into the gravel. 

Maloney took fifth, with Stanek in sixth and Colapinto seventh. Smolyar took eighth, having started in 16th, with William Alatalo and Ido Cohen rounding off the top 10 for Jenzer Motorsport.  

F3 Austria - Feature race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	18	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP
2	7	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	3.251
3	6	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	4.881
4	4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	5.383
5	3	Zane Maloney	Trident	6.457
6	2	Roman Staněk	Trident	8.067
7	29	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	9.113
8	11	Alexander Smolyar	MP Motorsport	9.882
9	25	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	10.852
10	23	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	12.286
11	9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	12.706
12	20	David Vidales	Campos Racing	13.901
13	31	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	14.095
14	8	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	14.738
15	30	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	15.442
16	19	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	15.722
17	26	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin	16.765
18	28	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	19.446
19	14	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System	21.368
20	27	Brad Benavides	Carlin	24.273
21	1	Jonny Edgar	Trident	50.679
22	5	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	1'00.379
23	17	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	1'13.566
24	16	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System	1 Lap
25	12	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	2 Laps
26	24	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	2 Laps
27	10	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	3 Laps
28	15	Zdenek Chovanec	Charouz Racing System
29	22	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing
View full results