Strong weekend in Spa-Francorchamps puts Oliver Bearman in the fight for the title

After taking victory in Saturday’s FIA Formula 3 sprint race in Spa-Francorchamps, Oliver Bearman followed it up with an impressive third place finish in Sunday’s feature race.

The Brit would have been excused for not being on top form, given he had never previously raced at the legendary Belgium circuit. However, this is not how the weekend panned out, as the Prema driver left Spa with his best result of the year, leaving him second in the standings, only trailing championship leader Isack Hadjar by one point. 

In contrast to Friday’s qualifying session, Sunday’s feature race conditions were dry throughout. Bearman started eighth, but quickly moved up to sixth in the opening laps, before the safety car was deployed twice. When the race resumed on lap ten, Bearman battled hard with fellow Brit Jonny Edgar, who he eventually passed with three laps remaining in the race.

Bearman secured  third place, making a last minute move on Oliver Goethe going into Les Combes, moving him up to fourth on track, and within five seconds of third place Caio Collet, who was demoted to sixth place after facing a penalty for dangerously re-entering the track.

Bearman commented on his weekend in Spa and his excitement for the penultimate round of the 2022 FIA F3 season this weekend:

“Another nice race and another podium, it’s the third time in a row I’ve finished in this position in the Feature Race and I think we got the most we could have done out of this weekend. 

“After qualifying I was a bit disappointed, because I had not performed as well as I could have done, but then I was able to get a great comeback in the races. 

“Now I’m looking forward to Zandvoort and luckily, there’s not long to wait.”