F3 Imola: Stanek claims maiden victory with late Bearman pass

A much-interrupted race featured three safety cars and multiple lead changes before Trident driver Stanek passed Bearman’s Prema on the main straight to thrust himself back into title contention following two non-scores in Bahrain.

Stanek held his second position off the line, then briefly took the lead from teammate and polesitter Zane Maloney before the Barbadian took charge of the race as those who had made early progress on wet tyres faded away.

Stanek then inherited the lead from his teammate after 2019 British Formula 4 champion Maloney spun on the second safety car restart, but his grip on the top spot was brief as reigning German and Italian F4 champion Bearman got the better jump and swept ahead into Tamburello.

But the Czech 18-year-old wasn't to be denied and kept close to the leader before passing him on the penultimate lap to take his first win in his third season of F3.

Jak Crawford repeated Stanek's move on Bearman to take second place on the final lap, with Isack Hadjar (Hitech) capitalising on a clash between Bearman and Gregoire Saucy (ART Grand Prix) at the first Rivazza further around the lap to take third as Bearman dropped to fourth.

A drying track led much of the field opt for slick tyres, but several drivers risked taking wets in a bid to make an early jump up the order.

One of these, MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet, charged through from ninth on the grid to lead by the end of lap one, but his advantage was short-lived thanks to the arrival of a safety car on lap two.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Reece Ushijima and Brad Benavides (Carlin) crashed at the exit of Turn 1, while Charouz Racing System driver Francesco Pizzi also went off into the gravel.

This prompted Collet to swap over to slicks, with race one winner Franco Colapinto (VAR) and MP Motorsport’s Alexander Smolyar following suit.

Racing resumed on lap five, with Maloney getting a good getaway, while wet-shod Pepe Marti moved into second by passing Bearman and Stanek in quick succession.

The Campos Racing driver also passed Maloney on lap 6, while teammate Hunter Yeany moved up to third, but both pitted for slicks on the following lap with slicks clearly the way to go.

Following contact with Rafael Villagomez’s left-rear wheel, Benavides ended his eventful race for good and crashed to bring out the second safety car.

Maloney led the field to the restart on lap 11, but spun on the approach to Rivazza as he prepared to release the field, with Bearman then passing Stanek for the lead.

With Maloney's car beached, the safety car was required again, after which Bearman made his bid to escape from Stanek and set a fastest lap on lap 15. But the Ferrari junior couldn't make a decisive gap and Stanek replied with a fastest lap of his own four tours later before finally making it past.

Crawford was next to pass Bearman into Turn 1 on the final lap, securing his second podium of the weekend after finishing third in race one, before Saucy's move around the outside of Rivazza caused Bearman to get sideways and make contact with the reigning Formula Renault European by Alpine champion.

As Hadjar scampered through to third, Bearman recovered to cross the line in fourth while the incident ended Saucy’s race.

Bearman's teammate Arthur Leclerc, who started in 21st after a crash with Enzo Trulli in qualifying, charged through the field to finish fifth, putting him level on points with pre-race championship leader Victor Martins - who finished out of the points in 11th.

Stanek's win puts him just a single point off the lead, with Crawford and Hadjar two and three points back respectively.

Kush Maini was sixth after an eventful first race, with Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan recovering from a race one crash to take seventh ahead of fellow previous GB3 champion Kaylen Frederick in eighth.

David Vidales and Ido Cohen completed the points scorers.

F3 Imola - Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap	Interval
1	2	Roman Staněk	Trident
2	5	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	0.654	0.654
3	18	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP	4.247	3.593
4	6	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	4.728	0.481
5	4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	6.515	1.787
6	12	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	12.566	6.051
7	26	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin	13.285	0.719
8	17	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	14.289	1.004
9	20	David Vidales	Campos Racing	14.945	0.656
10	23	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	15.446	0.501
11	7	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	15.893	0.447
12	25	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	16.613	0.720
13	10	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	18.587	1.974
14	15	David Schumacher	Charouz Racing System	18.848	0.261
15	11	Alexander Smolyar	MP Motorsport	21.050	2.202
16	22	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	21.969	0.919
17	21	Hunter Yeany	Campos Racing	22.963	0.994
18	31	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	27.704	4.741
19	19	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	28.761	1.057
20	30	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	30.406	1.645
21	24	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	32.374	1.968
22	29	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'12.566	40.192
23	8	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	1 Lap	1 Lap
24	28	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	1 Lap	2'04.431
25	14	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System	3 Laps	2 Laps
	3	Zane Maloney	Trident
	27	Brad Benavides	Carlin
	1	Oliver Rasmussen	Trident
	16	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System
View full results