Doohan Takes Second Win Of The Season To Strengthen Title Bid

Jack Doohan has spiced up the FIA Formula 3 title race after slicing thirteen points off Dennis Hauger’s commanding championship lead, the Australian will be starting on pole position for the feature race and with Hauger starting low down and the PREMA’S struggling will no doubt be hoping to take even more off the Norwegian’s lead.

It was a Trident 1-2 with David Schumacher finishing in second place ahead of the Charouz of Logan Sargeant who took his second trip to the Formula 3 podium this season after his second placed championship finish in 2020. The race would finish under safety car with yet another crash at the crest of the Raidillon hill going onto the Kemmel straight this time between Amaury Cordeel and Calan Williams, with thankfully both drivers escaping unharmed.

It was a disappointing start from Alex Smolyar who fell from third position down to eighth but the benefiters from this were Ciao Collet and Clément Novalak who both moved up a position, with Frederik Vesti and Victor Martins also benefitting from this mistake from the Russian.

The afore mentioned Dennis Hauger was one of few drivers to make up a number of positions in the tricky conditions where visibility was at a minimum – making up four positions including overtaking team-mate Arthur Leclerc to finish in ninth reducing his deficit to Hauger by two points.

Contact came at the mid point of the race when the PREMA of Arthur Leclerc collided with the Jenzer of Jonathan Hoggard the result of which sent the Briton spinning round and out of contention to score any more points in the race. HWA RACELAB’S Matteo Nannini would not see the chequered flag – a spin at the bus-stop chicane ending Italian’s race and bringing out the safety car to allow the Marshall’s to clear the debris.

With Doohan now under pressure for the first time since the first lap of the race the restart would be crucial for the Australian if he wanted to go on and win the second sprint race of the weekend before the racing could properly get under way a horror crash between Amaury Cordeel and Calan Williams ensured the race ended under safety car after debris was spewn all across the track.

Tune in to see whether or not Jack Doohan can convert his pole position into a feature race win at 10:40 am local time (provided the weather doesn’t cause any more delays.)

A Weekend So Far To Forget For The FIA and Formula 1

At a circuit like the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps we should be talking about things like the great racing, the spectacle, the unpredictable weather but yet again all of the conversation has been dominated by the danger of the Eu Rouge-Raidillon crest and in particular the barrier on the right hand side. It’s a part of the circuit where crashes are frequent, in the 24 hours of Spa Jack Aitken was involved in a crash that left him with several broken bones, this weekend a huge crash in a W Series race left two drivers in hospital, Lando Norris was another to suffer the consequences of lack of traction at the same point and finally Calan Williams and Amaury Cordeel collided at yet again the same point in the second formula three sprint race.

Jake Hughes – a man with a vast amount of experience in FIA Formula 3 took to Twitter to express his views on the part of the track and particularly the afore mentioned barrier stating “The point with Eu Rouge for me is not that a car hits the barrier when they go off. It’s that the barrier on the left bounces the car directly back onto the racing line on a blind crest.” Clearly changes need to be made to the circuit and once again questions will be asked about Michael Masi’s position as race director, for now the motorsport world will keep their fingers crossed that Sunday is incident free and that all the races are fantastic to watch.