Charouz Racing’s Logan Sargeant secured his first win of the season, dominating the unexpected race from the second position as Dennis Hauger took the championship title early.
Due to an uncertain weather forecast at Sochi with the likeliness of rain, the FIA Formula 3 decided to change the schedule just two hours after the qualifying session ended instead of taking place on Saturday’s morning as programmed.
With two races left in the 2021 season, Prema Racing’s Dennis Hauger got crowned as the new FIA Formula 3 champion earlier than expected, finishing the race behind Charouz Racing’s Logan Sargeant in second.
Hauger only needed six points to clinch the crown, with the 43 points lead ahead of his initial rival Jack Doohan, but the Norwegian driver was out of reach as Doohan slipped from 12th to 15th, which makes him out of the title race.
Logan Sargeant managed to take his and the team’s first win of the season, despite the amount of pressure Hauger puts to take another victory with a less than a second gap.
The reverse polesitter Victor Martins takes the final spot on the podium, as Sargeant snatched the race lead away at the beginning of the 20 laps long race, with Trident’s Clement Novalak sitting directly behind Frenchman in fourth.
His MP Motorsport teammate, Caio Collet, was fifth ahead of Campos Racing’s Lorenzo Colombo, completing the race in sixth with the opportunistic Arthur Leclerc in seventh for Prema Racing after he won the thrilling battle from Frederik Vesti.
The ART drivers, Frederik Vesti and Juan Manuel Correa, ended the first race of the seventh round in eighth and ninth place, respectively, ahead of the Hitech pairing Ayumu Iwasa and Jak Crawford.
Jak Crawford fell out of the top 10. Still, the American driver managed to hang onto the 11th place, securing his place on the front row for Race 2 behind HWA Racelab’s Johnathan Hoggard as the polesitter in a reversed grid format.
Race 2 will emerge at 1.40 PM local time.
Race 1 result:
| 1 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz Racing System |
| 2 | Dennis Hauger | Prema Racing |
| 3 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport |
| 4 | Clement Novalak | Trident |
| 5 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport |
| 6 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos Racing |
| 7 | Arthur Leclerc | Prema Racing |
| 8 | Frederik Vesti | ART Grand Prix |
| 9 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART Grand Prix |
| 10 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech Grand Prix |
| 11 | Jak Crawford | Hitech Grand Prix |
| 12 | Johnathan Hoggard | HWA Racelab |
| 13 | Roman Stanek | Hitech Grand Prix |
| 14 | David Schumacher | Trident |
| 15 | Jack Doohan | Trident |
| 16 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab |
| 17 | Olli Caldwell | Prema Racing |
| 18 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin Buzz Racing |
| 19 | Calan Williams | Jenzer Motorsport |
| 20 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab |
| 21 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos Racing |
| 22 | Alexander Smolyar | ART Grand Prix |
| 23 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin Buzz Racing |
| 24 | Ayrton Simmons | Charouz Racing System |
| 25 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer Motorsport |
| 26 | Zdenek Chovanec | Charouz Racing System |
| 27 | Ido Cohen | Carlin Buzz Racing |
| 28 | Tjimen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport |
| 29 | Laszlo Toth | Campos Racing |
| 30 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab |
