Race report

FIA F3 Sochi

Sochi F3: Doohan outduels teammate Novalak to win finale

Jack Doohan took victory in the final FIA Formula 3 race of the season in Sochi, securing Trident the teams’ championship title.

Megan White

Edited: Sep 26, 2021, 11:47 AM

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Jack Doohan, Trident, Clement Novalak, Trident

The Australian ensued a tight battle with teammate Clement Novalak for his fourth win of the season – his third in a feature race – and secured the runner-up spot in the drivers’ standings.

Having finished second and third respectively in the drivers’ standings, the pair’s performance secured the Italian outfit the teams’ title, holding off Prema.

Novalak had run in second for much of the race but finished in third, with Frederik Vesti splitting the two to take second place for ART.

Logan Sargeant finished in fourth for Charouz Racing System, having started 11th, and marking a brilliant weekend for the team after his win on Friday.

Hitech’s Jak Crawford took fifth, with Johnathan Hoggard in sixth for Jenzer Motorsport, his best finish of the season.

Ayrton Simmons’ stricken Charouz car had to be pushed off the grid into the pitlane before the formation lap, leaving him at the back of the pack for the race.

Doohan got a great start off the line, consigning Novalak to hold off Hoggard for second.

Vesti battled with Lorenzo Colombo (Campos) to regain the sixth place he lost at the start, while champion Dennis Hauger made up two places into P7, having started ninth.

The inevitable Turn 2 melee left MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet with a damaged nose after contact with Alexander Smolyar, forcing the Brazilian to retire from the race, while the ART driver suffered damage to his floor.

By the following lap, the ART duo of Juan Manuel Correa and Vesti sat in fourth and fifth respectively, while further back the Prema pair of Arthur Leclerc and Olli Caldwell were switching spots in P14 and P15, before the latter dropped down to 18th.

Crawford passed Martins on Lap 3, but the Frenchman fought back for ninth, while Hauger fought side-by-side with Correa. But the champion’s tussle allowed Sargeant to split the two and take sixth, before Crawford also got past and knocked Hauger back into seventh.

With 15 laps to go, Martins and Hauger battled for eighth, with the MP Motorsport driver emerging in front.

Hauger was sent spinning round on Lap 7 after being hit from the rear by HWA Racelab’s Oliver Rasmussen at Turn 7, plummeting down the order to the back of the pack and damaging Prema’s teams’ championship hopes. Rasmussen was handed a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.

Leclerc was up to P7 by the eighth lap, with the Monegasque driver passing Correa on the inside down to Turn 2.

Novalak passed Doohan at Turn 5, with his teammate forced wide down the escape road, but had to give back the space after failing to go round the bollards. They were warned not to fight by the team shortly after.

Despite being asked to let his teammate past, Doohan kept the lead at the halfway point, with a third-placed Vesti biding his time in third.

Hauger pitted on lap 11, taking another set of hard tyres in a bid to take the two points for fastest lap from Trident.

Two laps later, Doohan was once again asked over the radio to let Novalak past, but gave no response and held his position.

With five laps to go, Smolyar pitted for a new nose, while back on track Martins passed both Correa and Iwasa up into P8.

Vesti dropped back from the leading pair after running wide at the last turn into Lap 16, falling out of the DRS zone, while the Tridents continued their battle out front.

Racing wheel-to-wheel, the teammates continued to trade places, with Novalak passing on the start-finish straight before the spot was recaptured by Doohan.

Increasingly desperate messages from both the team and Novalak ensued, with the Russian forced to defend from a rapidly approaching Vesti with two laps to go.

Vesti swept past Novalak down the inside of Turn 12, taking the position in the braking zone of Turn 13.

Novalak almost attempted a pass on Vesti on the last lap, but opted not to risk the team’s points and held his position.

Race results:

Cla # Driver Team Time Gap 1 4 Australia Jack Doohan Italy Trident - 2 7 Denmark Frederik Vesti France ART Grand Prix 3.100 3.100 3 5 United Kingdom Clement Novalak Italy Trident 3.700 3.700 4 29 United States Logan Sargeant Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 7.400 7.400 5 10 Jak Crawford HitechGP 9.600 9.600 6 27 Johnathan Hoggard Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 10.300 10.300 7 2 Arthur Leclerc Italy Prema Powerteam 15.200 15.200 8 17 France Victor Martins Netherlands MP Motorsport 18.800 18.800 9 11 Ayumu Iwasa United Kingdom HitechGP 23.600 23.600 10 3 Olli Caldwell Italy Prema Powerteam 25.700 25.700 11 9 United States Juan Manuel Correa France ART Grand Prix 26.800 26.800 12 26 Australia Calan Williams Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 27.300 27.300 13 24 Kaylen Frederick Carlin 36.200 36.200 14 25 United Kingdom Jonny Edgar Carlin 36.700 36.700 15 6 Germany David Schumacher Italy Trident 37.200 37.200 16 22 Amaury Cordeel Spain Campos Racing 37.500 37.500 17 14 Italy Matteo Nannini Germany HWA AG 38.900 38.900 18 19 Tijmen van Netherlands MP Motorsport 43.100 43.100 19 28 Filip Ugran Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 52.900 52.900 20 31 Zdenek Chovanec Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 58.200 58.200 21 30 Ayrton Simmons Charouz Racing System 58.600 58.600 22 20 László Tóth Spain Campos Racing 1'02.100 1'02.100 23 8 Russian Federation Alexander Smolyar France ART Grand Prix 1'08.700 1'08.700 24 1 Norway Dennis Hauger Italy Prema Powerteam 1'38.800 1'38.800 15 Oliver Rasmussen Germany HWA AG 2 laps 12 Czech Republic Roman Staněk United Kingdom HitechGP 2 laps 21 Italy Lorenzo Colombo Spain Campos Racing 3 laps 23 Ido Cohen Carlin 4 laps 16 Rafael Villagómez Germany HWA AG 11 laps 18 Caio Collet Netherlands MP Motorsport View full results

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