Nikola Tsolov earned his first Feature Race victory in Formula 3, winning from ART Grand Prix teammate Laurens van Hoepen in Budapest. The Bulgarian took the lead at the start and resisted race-long pressure from the Dutchman, while Noel León rounded out the podium in third for Van Amersfoort Racing.
AS IT HAPPENED
Van Hoepen got wheelspin in the second phase of the start and had to defend hard from his teammate Tsolov off the line. The Dutch driver ran deep at Turn 1, allowing the Bulgarian through along with VAR’s Noel León. Into Turn 3 and the ART rookie didn’t give up, fighting his way back past the Mexican to take second.
With DRS enabled, van Hoepen began to close in on Tsolov and was within half a second on Lap 3, while León dropped to beyond a second back from the ART duo.
Christian Mansell moved his ART up to fifth position with a late dive to the inside of Santiago Ramos at Turn 1 on Lap 4.
As the opening laps ticked by, van Hoepen radioed into his team to relay his tyres were beginning to overheat in the wake of teammate Tsolov. While he wasn’t quite close enough to overtake for the lead, León was able to creep his way into DRS range of the Dutchman ahead by Lap 10.
By the midway point of the race, the top six were covered by four seconds with Santiago Ramos some 9.6s clear of Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin who was running in P7.
In the fight for the final points places, Oliver Goethe pulled off a late dive at Turn 1 to pass Dino Beganovic and secure himself ninth position on Lap 14, while behind that pairing, Gabriele Minì cleared Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak to move up to P11.
Mari Boya was next to pass the AIX Racing driver on Lap 16 at Turn 12, and he was followed by Luke Browning on the following lap at Turn 2.
Into the final three laps and after a phase of tyre management, van Hoepen began to apply the pressure on Tsolov once again in the lead fight.
Boya’s battle with Minì resumed and the Spaniard found a gap at Turn 2 to take 11th position.
Contact between Arvid Lindblad and Matias Zagazeta resulted in a late-race Safety Car on Lap 21, with the PREMA Racing driver stopped at Turn 4.
With little time to clear both cars, it was not possible to resume racing in time for a final lap shootout. Tsolov took his third race win of 2024 and his first F3 Feature Race victory ahead of teammate van Hoepen.
León rounded out the podium with his third rostrum visit of the season, taking third for Van Amersfoort.
Fornaroli was fourth and he took a chunk out of compatriot Minì’s Championship lead in the process, while Mansell ensured ART had all three cars in the top five with fifth.
Ramos, Voisin, Nikita Bedrin, Goethe and Beganovic rounded out the points-paying positions.
KEY QUOTE – Nikola Tsolov, ART Grand Prix
“Finally a Feature Race win. I’m super excited and super happy. Third win as well so I think we managed it well. Had a good start and that was the key for a good race. Just super excited.”
THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Gabriele Minì didn’t add to his points tally but he continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship on 119 points, ahead of Luke Browning in second on 115. Arvid Lindblad falls to third with 113 points, while Leonardo Fornaroli closes the gap to his compatriot and is now fourth and 10 points off the lead on 109. Christian Mansell climbs up to fifth position in the Standings on 95 points.
PREMA Racing retain their advantage at the top of the Teams’ Standings, now on 321 points while ART Grand Prix scored big to go onto 241 points in second. Trident remain third but move onto 178 points. Campos Racing and Hitech Pulse-Eight complete the top five on 143 and 141 points respectively.
UP NEXT
It’s back-to-back race weekend as we head straight to Spa-Francorchamps for the penultimate round of the 2024 season, from July 26-28.
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