Silverstone F3: Sargeant takes dominant maiden win

Prema driver Sargeant started from pole position for the second successive Saturday at the circuit, but this time he was able to convert pole into a lights-to-flag victory.  

The 19-year-old American racer, who finished in a lowly 19th in his first FIA F3 season last year with Carlin, drove into an early race lead as his rivals squabbled behind him.   

On the opening lap, F3 veteran Jake Hughes wrestled second place from Red Bull junior Liam Lawson after the duo ran side-by-side through the opening corners.

HWA's Hughes failed to trouble Sargeant and his second place came under late-pressure from Lawson in the closing stages of the race.  

Lawson was shaping up a final-lap challenge, but this was called off when ART Grand Prix’s Sebastian Fernandez collided with the Jenzer-run car of Matteo Nannini on the entry to Stowe on the penultimate lap of the race. 

This brought out double-waved yellow flags and Lawson was unable to make his move, leaving Hughes – whom he collided with while fighting for the win in the Styrian GP reverse-grid race - to scoop second place and his first podium of the year.  

Hitech driver Lawson claimed third place ahead of reigning Formula Regional European champion Frederik Vesti in the second of the Prema cars.

Vesti started the race from fourth place but faced an intense battle with ART’s Theo Pourchaire to keep his position.  

Pourchaire sold Vesti a dummy on the Hangar Straight to dive to the inside at Stowe halfway through the race, but Vesti clung onto the position around the outside of the corner.  

Trident’s David Beckmann pounced at the final corner and passed Pourchaire while Vesti received a warning from the stewards for his defensive tactics – similar to those which stripped Pourchaire’s teammate Alexander Smolyar of a maiden win last Sunday.  

Beckmann continued his strong season with a fifth-place finish ahead of Pourchaire and the recovering former championship leader Oscar Piastri in the final Prema entry.

Renault junior Piastri started from 11th on the grid after his car stopped twice in qualifying and fought back to claim seventh place, although he loses his points lead to Sargeant. 

MP Motorsport’s Bent Viscaal picked up his second points finish of the year in eighth place ahead of the lead Carlin driver, Clement Novalak.  

Beckmann’s teammate Lirim Zendeli will start Sunday’s reverse-grid race from pole position after narrowly beating single-seater returnee Ben Barnicoat to 10th place and the final point.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	3	Logan Sargeant	Prema Powerteam	20
2	15	Jake Hughes	HWA AG	20	1.552
3	5	Liam Lawson	HitechGP	20	2.025
4	2	Frederik Vesti	Prema Powerteam	20	2.339
5	11	David Beckmann	Trident	20	4.870
6	7	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	20	9.370
7	1	Oscar Piastri	Prema Powerteam	20	10.087
8	18	Bent Viscaal	MP Motorsport	20	10.705
9	26	Clement Novalak	Carlin	20	11.082
10	10	Lirim Zendeli	Trident	20	11.535
11	27	Ben Barnicoat	Carlin	20	12.072
12	28	Cameron Das	Carlin	20	14.284
13	8	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix	20	17.215
14	29	Alexander Peroni	Campos Racing	20	17.715
15	25	David Schumacher	Charouz Racing System	20	20.475
16	4	Max Fewtrell	HitechGP	20	21.368
17	14	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA AG	20	22.278
18	24	Igor Fraga	Charouz Racing System	20	22.971
19	17	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	20	23.441
20	31	Sophia Flörsch	Campos Racing	20	24.078
21	12	Olli Caldwell	Trident	20	24.369
22	23	Roman Staněk	Charouz Racing System	20	25.014
23	19	Lukas Dunner	MP Motorsport	20	31.254
24	9	Sebastian Fernandez	ART Grand Prix	20	33.229
25	30	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing	20	39.766
26	16	Jack Doohan	HWA AG	20	1'32.538
27	22	Matteo Nannini	Jenzer Motorsport	18	2 Laps
	20	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	5
	21	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	5
	6	Dennis Hauger	HitechGP	2
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