Rollercoaster Weekend at The Red Bull Ring 🇦🇹
Jack Doohan has finished P3, P7, & DNF at the third round of the Formula 3 Championship in Austria.
Race 1 - Position 3
Doohan showed strong signs through qualifying, sitting in P4 before the session was red flagged with 8 minutes remaining. The Aussie was unable to better his time after the restart and qualified in P7.
For the opening race of the weekend, Doohan stayed out of trouble through the early laps to maintain his starting position of P6.
Martins, who lied ahead of Doohan, skated off the track on Lap 6 to elevate the Aussie into P5.
As the race progressed, Doohan struggled to keep his car near the front as Hauger, Martins, Crawford & Collet all moved by.
After Novalak and Nannini tangled on Lap 21, Doohan was able to recover two positions and crossed the finish line in P7.
After the race, several cars ahead of the Doohan received post-race time penalties, promoting the Trident Driver to P3.
Race 2 - Position 7
Doohan started P10 and held his position through the early parts of the race.
The Trident Driver would later drop a place on Lap 9 to Caldwell, but would regain the position a lap later.
Shortly after, the Aussie would progress further up the field after incidents ahead and move his #4 into P7.
Doohan would climb as high as P5 in the second half the race, but was passed twice in the dying laps to finish in P7.
Race 3 - DNF
Doohan started the feature race on Sunday from Friday's qualifying result of P7.
When the lights went out, the Aussie was able to pick off one position to move into P6, however, Doohan was unable to match the pace of the cars behind him early in the race, dropping back to P9.
A massive crash between Leclerc, Martin & Novolak on Lap 13 would propel Doohan back into P6 through the mid-part of the race.
As a result of the incident, the safety car was deployed onto the track.
Once racing resumed, the Trident driver started to apply pressure to Naninni ahead in P5. The Aussie eventually made his move on Lap 21 as he neared the end of the race.
A lap later, Doohan's race would come to an abrupt end after clashing with Crawford at Turn 3, leaving a puncture in the right rear tyre of the #4.
Doohan made it back to pit lane where he stayed for the remainder of the race, ultimately missing out on vital championship points from his DNF. Despite Doohan's bad luck in the feature race, he still remains P3 in the Formula 3 Championship Standings, only trailing P2 by 2 points.
"It was a tough weekend in the end, the car had such great pace through Friday, it's a shame we didn't capitalise through the races a bit more. Unfortunately, not finishing the feature race hurts our championship ambitions, but I'm looking forward to reseting now and heading to Hungary next month."
FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
- 1 - Dennis Hauger, Prema Racing - 115 points
- 2 - Frederik Vesti, ART Grand Prix, 74 points
- 3 - Jack Doohan, Trident Team - 72 points
- 4 - Olli Caldwell, Prema Racing - 70 points
- 5 - Victor Martins, MP Motorsport - 66 points