F3 Spain: Boya wins sprint race as Trident pair implode

Mari Boya scored his maiden F3 victory in the Spanish sprint race in Barcelona as Trident imploded

Mari Boya topped the F3 podium for the first time, securing only his second career top-three finish in a relatively straightforward affair for the Campos driver after early contact between Santiago Ramos and Sami Meguetounif cleared the path for the Spaniard.

Alex Dunne (MP Motorsport) and Oliver Goethe (Campos) joined him on the top three, although the former's position remains provisional as he is subject to a post-race investigation for a false start.

Following a post-qualifying track limits penalty for Sebastian Montoya, Trident saw drivers Ramos and Meguetounif promoted to the front row. But any hope of victory disintegrated with an embarrassing third lap collision between the team-mates.

With DRS enabled at the start of the lap, Meguetounif had the run on Ramos, who was defending the inside line, into Turn 1. Despite space being left, Meguetounif took to the grass on the inside, lost control and was forced to retire with damage after the pair collided.

Ramos was able to recover to the pits with a puncture but rejoined at the back of the pack.

In the mayhem, Nikita Bedrin (AIX Racing) and Callum Voisin (Rodin) also made contact at the same corner – both of whom retired. Both incidents were subject to a post-race investigation. Stewards handed Meguetounif a five-place grid drop to be taken in his next race and two points added to his licence.

The beneficiary was home driver Boya, who led the way from Dunne and Goethe when action resumed on lap eight.

While all eyes had been on the action at the front, Montoya had made rapid progress, climbing from P27 to P15 by the time of the safety car. And this progress continued after the intervention, with Nikola Tsolov, Luke Browning and Christian Mansell all falling victim to the fast-charging Colombian by lap 13.

But this was all for nothing, when contact with Gabriele Mini (Prema) on lap 18 on the exit of Turn 4 as the lines of both drivers converged resulted in a right front puncture to the Prema, leaving Mini unable to avoid taking the pair into the gravel and out of the race.

At the front, Boya had survived an attack from Dunne after a period of tyre saving. There was now, however, an asterisk hanging over the on-track action as Dunne – along with Christian Mansell (ART), Bedrin, Charlie Wurz (Jenzer), Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (AIX Racing), Sophia Floersch (Van Amersfoort Racing), Kacper Sztuka (MP Motorsport) and Piotr Wisnicki (Rodin) – was under investigation for a false start.

With the clear-up unable to be completed within the 21-lap distance, the race finished behind the safety car, with Boya left unchallenged to claim his first F3 victory and become the ninth different winner from nine races on the 99^th race in the category's history.

Despite his retirement, Mini retained his lead in the championship on 72 points, with Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident) second three points back and Luke Browning (Hitech) third after failing to score in P12.

Update: Campos Racing has been summoned to the stewards after Boya's car was found to have been fitted with a front plank which was marked but not nominated for the car.

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	M. Boya Campos Racing	12	21	38'11.211		153.462		10
2	A. Dunne MP Motorsport	9	21	+0.453 38'11.664	0.453	153.432		9
3	O. Goethe Campos Racing	10	21	+0.828 38'12.039	0.375	153.407		8
4	M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight	15	21	+1.068 38'12.279	0.240	153.391		7
5	L. Van ART Grand Prix	24	21	+1.263 38'12.474	0.195	153.378		6
6	N. León Van Amersfoort Racing	20	21	+1.735 38'12.946	0.472	153.346		5
7	L. Fornaroli Trident	4	21	+1.893 38'13.104	0.158	153.336		4		1
8	D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam	1	21	+2.197 38'13.408	0.304	153.315		3
9	A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam	3	21	+2.698 38'13.909	0.501	153.282		2
10	T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport	7	21	+2.964 38'14.175	0.266	153.264		1
11	C. Mansell ART Grand Prix	23	21	+3.111 38'14.322	0.147	153.254
12	L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight	14	21	+3.375 38'14.586	0.264	153.237
13	N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix	25	21	+3.936 38'15.147	0.561	153.199
14	C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	21	+4.213 38'15.424	0.277	153.181
15	J. Loake Rodin Motorsport	31	21	+4.652 38'15.863	0.439	153.151
16	C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport	17	21	+4.982 38'16.193	0.330	153.129
17	J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing	28	21	+5.287 38'16.498	0.305	153.109
18	T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing	22	21	+5.787 38'16.998	0.500	153.076
19	M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport	19	21	+6.938 38'18.149	1.151	152.999
20	S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing	21	21	+7.117 38'18.328	0.179	152.987
21	S. Ramos Trident	6	21	+7.370 38'18.581	0.253	152.970
22	M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport	18	21	+7.849 38'19.060	0.479	152.938
23	K. Sztuka MP Motorsport	8	21	+8.566 38'19.777	0.717	152.891
24	P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport	30	21	+8.760 38'19.971	0.194	152.878
25	T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing	26	21	+16.556 38'27.767	7.796	152.361
dnf	G. Minì Prema Powerteam	2	17	4 laps					Accident
dnf	S. Montoya Campos Racing	11	17	4 laps					Accident
dnf	S. Meguetounif Trident	5	2	19 laps					Accident
dnf	C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport	29	2	19 laps					Accident
dnf	N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing	27	2	19 laps					Accident
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