ART’s Alexander Smolyar claimed his maiden Formula 3 victory in the first race of the season after consistently leading 17 laps from the race.
Alexander Smolyar started the race in the second position from the grid as he beat the pole-sitter, Jonny Edgar, by picking up the pace to catch the race leader at the early stage of Barcelona’s race.
At the beginning of the formation lap, Carlin’s rookie, Ido Cohen, appeared to have an issue as his car stopped on the track bringing the second formation lap into the race.
As the lights went out from the first race of the season in Barcelona, the pole sitter Jonny Edgar started well in the first position keeping ART’s Alexander Smolyar and MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet behind him.
On the fourth lap out of 21, Alexander Smolyar managed to take the lead from the race as he placed the race leader Jonny Edgar behind him.
While another battle happened between Frederik Vesti in 7th as the Mercedes junior driver put the pressure on David Schumacher in 6th, stressing the German driver to get under him.
The race highlight goes out to Frederik Vesti as he struggled to gain one position from where he started in 8th, with the two Prema Racing driver keeping him underneath the red cars.
Vesti briefly slipped into ninth place before climbing his way back to eight, taking the position from MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins, but Olli Caldwell was fast to secure his position in sixth.
Further down the race from Smolyar’s journey in maintaining his place in leading the race, the battle for second emerged between Jonny Edgar and Caio Collet before Clement Novalak sneaked inside the two drivers to take over Caio Collet’s place in the front row.
Edgar started to lose his grip to defend his place in the third position as he slipped to fifth as Caio Collet secured the third position, followed by Logan Sargeant running in fourth fastest.
As it happened, the race ended under safety car condition following the accident from Oliver Rasmussen just three laps before the race is officially over.
The Russian driver was declared as the winner of the race as he claimed his maiden victory in his second season inside the FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Clement Novalak joined him in the second position, winning his first podium of the season along with MP Motorsport’s rookie Caio Collet in third as he performed his debut in the championship.
The second race from round one will start at 16.45 local time in Barcelona, starring Enzo Fittipaldi as the pole sitter.
Race 1 result:
| 1 | Alexander Smolyar | ART |
| 2 | Clement Novalak | Trident |
| 3 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport |
| 4 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz Racing |
| 5 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin |
| 6 | Olli Caldwell | Prema |
| 7 | Frederik Vesti | ART |
| 8 | Dennis Hauger | Prema |
| 9 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport |
| 10 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab |
| 11 | David Schumacher | Trident |
| 12 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz Racing |
| 13 | Jack Crawford | Hitech |
| 14 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech |
| 15 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART |
| 16 | Roman Stanek | Hitech |
| 17 | Jack Doohan | Trident |
| 18 | Calan Williams | Jenzer Motorsport |
| 19 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab |
| 20 | Reshard De Gerus | Charouz Racing |
| 21 | Tjimen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport |
| 22 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin |
| 23 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos |
| 24 | Pierre-Louis Chovet | Jenzer Motorsport |
| 25 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer Motorsport |
| 26 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos |
| 27 | Laszlo Toth | Campos |
| 28 | Arthur Leclerc | Prema |
| 29 | Ido Cohen | Carlin |
| 30 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab |
