Barcelona F3: ART's Smolyar scores maiden win in season opener

The Russian driver, who started second, took the lead from Carlin’s Jonny Edgar on the fourth lap of 22 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, snatching the spot with DRS at Turn 1 after a tight battle in the first few laps.

It was only his second podium in the category, taking the top step and giving him 15 points, with an added two bonus points for the fastest lap

Trident’s Clement Novalak finished in second in his second-ever podium finish, taking 12 points, and MP Motorsport’s rookie Caio Collet took third on his debut, giving him 10 points.

Charouz Racing System’s Logan Sargeant, the highest placed returning driver from last year, finished in fourth, while Carlin’s Jonny Edgar, who started on pole, finished in fifth.

The safety car was deployed on lap 19 after the HWA Racelab of Oliver Rasmussen ended up in the gravel.

Smolyar had broken the DRS train by lap eight, giving him more than 1.5 seconds on Edgar in second place and extending that lead to more than two seconds by the 12^th lap.

Carlin’s Ido Cohen’s car ground to a halt on the track during the formation lap, forcing the start to be aborted and inducing another formation lap for the other 29 drivers while he was towed back to the pitlane.

Despite Edgar having a great getaway and remaining in first for the initial few laps, he dropped down to fourth by the 16^th lap as his tyres wore away, before being overtaken Sargeant the following lap.

The Premas charged through the middle of the field during the opening lap, but only managed a best of P6 for Olli Caldwell, with Dennis Hauger, who will be on pole tomorrow, in P8.

Arthur Leclerc was forced to pit on lap 14 after a rear left puncture, dropping him down the running order to 29^th – second to last – before finishing in 28^th.

Trident’s Jack Doohan, who qualified P2 yesterday, meaning he started P11 in this race, dropped down the order to 19^th during the first lap but eventually finished 17^th.

The top 12 of this morning’s race is reversed to form the grid for this afternoon’s race, with Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi starting on pole.

Trident’s David Schumacher will start second, with HWA Racelab’s Matteo Nannini and MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins on the second row.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	8	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix
2	5	Clement Novalak	Trident	1.500
3	18	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	1.900
4	29	Logan Sargeant	Charouz Racing System	2.100
5	25	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	2.400
6	3	Olli Caldwell	Prema Powerteam	2.800
7	7	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	3.400
8	1	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	3.800
9	17	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	4.100
10	14	Matteo Nannini	HWA AG	4.500
11	6	David Schumacher	Trident	4.900
12	30	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	5.300
13	10	Jak Crawford	HitechGP	5.700
14	11	Ayumu Iwasa	HitechGP	6.200
15	9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	7.200
16	12	Roman Staněk	HitechGP	7.700
17	4	Jack Doohan	Trident	10.000
18	26	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	10.300
19	16	Rafael Villagómez	HWA AG	11.200
20	31	Reshad de	Charouz Racing System	11.800
21	19	Tijmen van	MP Motorsport	13.400
22	24	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	13.900
23	21	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos Racing	14.100
24	27	Pierre-Louis Chovet	Jenzer Motorsport	18.000
25	28	Filip Ugran	Jenzer Motorsport	18.300
26	22	Amaury Cordeel	Campos Racing	20.500
27	20	László Tóth	Campos Racing	21.000
28	2	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	21.400
29	23	Ido Cohen	Carlin	38.000
30	15	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA AG
View full results