Race report

FIA F3 Silverstone

Silverstone F3: Smolyar gets first win, disaster for Piastri

ART Grand Prix driver Alexander Smolyar resisted race-long pressure from David Beckmann to claim his first FIA Formula 3 victory at Silverstone, as points leader Oscar Piastri failed to score.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Aug 2, 2020, 12:58 PM

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Alexander Smolyar, ART Grand Prix

Having finished 10th in Saturday’s opener, SMP Racing protege Smolyar started from reverse-grid pole and made a strong start to maintain the lead ahead of fellow front-row starter Beckmann and third-placed Clement Novalak.

Smolyar managed to break away from his pursuers by one second in the early laps but Beckmann had clawed his way back into DRS range when the safety car was called on lap five of 20 to retrieve Igor Fraga’s stricken Charouz-run car.

At the restart on lap nine, Smolyar maintained control but was unable to shake Beckmann this time, although the German never got close enough to attempt a move.

The closest Trident driver Beckmann got came on lap 15 at Stowe, but Smolyar hung on – albeit later receiving a ticking off from his engineer for weaving along the Hangar Straight, something that was subsequently noted by the stewards.

Smolyar hung on for the remain laps to win by 0.740s to become the sixth different winner of the 2020 season, while Carlin driver Novalak took his second podium of the year in third.

Alexander Peroni (Campos) came home fourth ahead of two Prema drivers, Frederik Vesti in fifth and Logan Sargeant in sixth.

The remaining Prema car of Piastri dropped down the order when the Australian was forced into the gravel at Luffield by ART driver Theo Pourchaire on lap two, and the points leader was later forced to pit and retire when his DRS became stuck open.

It means nearest rival Sargeant, who also picked up two bonus points for fastest lap, closes to within 18 points of Piastri at the head of the standings.

Saturday race winner Liam Lawson (Hitech) finished seventh while the final point went to Pourchaire following a penultimate lap pass on Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport). Jake Hughes (HWA) completed the top 10 after a brief off cost him places.

Sebastian Fernandez (ART) lost the chance to fight for a podium finish after he suffered a problem on the formation lap that caused him to drop down the order.

The Spanish-Venezuelan driver picked up a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for having failed to get back into his grid position of fourth by the time the pack arrived at the safety car line before the start, and he eventually finished down in 22nd.

Race results:

Cla # Driver Team Laps Gap 1 8 Russian Federation Alexander Smolyar France ART Grand Prix 20 2 11 Germany David Beckmann Italy Trident 20 0.740 3 26 United Kingdom Clement Novalak Carlin 20 1.166 4 29 Australia Alexander Peroni Spain Campos Racing 20 1.725 5 2 Denmark Frederik Vesti Italy Prema Powerteam 20 2.240 6 3 United States Logan Sargeant Italy Prema Powerteam 20 2.632 7 5 New Zealand Liam Lawson HitechGP 20 6.448 8 7 France Theo Pourchaire France ART Grand Prix 20 6.991 9 17 Netherlands Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 20 7.601 10 15 United Kingdom Jake Hughes Germany HWA AG 20 7.889 11 10 Germany Lirim Zendeli Italy Trident 20 8.358 12 27 Ben Barnicoat Carlin 20 11.738 13 21 Italy Federico Malvestiti Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 20 13.763 14 20 Australia Calan Williams Jenzer Motorsport 20 14.357 15 25 Germany David Schumacher Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 20 14.646 16 18 Netherlands Bent Viscaal MP Motorsport 20 17.334 17 6 Norway Dennis Hauger United Kingdom HitechGP 20 18.592 18 23 Roman Staněk Charouz Racing System 20 19.096 19 14 Brazil Enzo Fittipaldi Germany HWA AG 20 19.338 20 4 Max Fewtrell HitechGP 20 21.261 21 31 Germany Sophia Flörsch Spain Campos Racing 20 21.994 22 9 Venezuela Sebastian Fernandez France ART Grand Prix 20 22.288 23 19 Austria Lukas Dunner Netherlands MP Motorsport 20 22.863 24 22 Italy Matteo Nannini Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 20 23.364 25 28 United States Cameron Das United Kingdom Carlin 20 25.996 26 12 Olli Caldwell Italy Trident 20 28.478 27 16 Australia Jack Doohan Germany HWA AG 20 29.674 28 30 Italy Alessio Deledda Spain Campos Racing 20 33.872 1 Oscar Piastri Italy Prema Powerteam 11 24 Brazil Igor Fraga Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 4 View full results

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