Rafael Câmara took a dominant win in the Bahrain F3 Feature Race filled with intrigue.
After a brilliant sprint race where Nikola Tsolov came out on top against debutant Freddie Slater, the F3 Feature Race was set to be yet another cracker of a race. On pole was Rafael Câmara ahead of Callum Voisin and Charlie Wurz. Câmara and Voisin dominated qualifying and it was expected that the race would be a similar story. In the sprint, Câmara was down in last after lap one but managed to fight back to finish in 12th, where he started.
Early laps of the Feature Race
Voisin got a better start than Camara and led into turn one. Wurz challenged Camara for second and Christian Ho was fourth. Louis Sharp stalled at the start which damaged his chances of a good finish. Noah Stromsted made a move into turn eight on Tim Tramnitz, but they brilliantly fought. Meanwhile two McLaren juniors in Brando Badoer and Martinius Stenshorne fought with Alessandro Giusti and Freddie Slater for eleventh.
James Wharton was spun around by Matias Zagazeta, although Ivan Domingues went for an optimistic move which didn’t pay off. Meanwhile Tuukka Taponen got past Ho for fourth.
Slater had mechanical trouble on lap two and retired. By lap three, Camara was back ahead of Voisin. They duelled in the first sector, with Voisin getting back ahead at turn six. Stromsted got ahead of Ho, who had lost over a second to Taponen in fourth.
A Virtual Safety Car was called on lap three due to debris. The top 10 was Voisin, Camara, Wurz, Taponen, Stromsted, Ho, Tramnitz, Bruno del Pino, Tsolov and Badoer. On the restart of the brief VSC, Tsolov made a move at turn one on del Pino and managed to remain ahead. He was now two seconds behind Tim Tramnitz.
Wharton pitted due to the damage at turn one.
VSC restart
Lap five came and Camara once again passed Voisin at turn one. Third placed Charlie Wurz now had fastest lap. Voisin couldn’t get back ahead at turn four. Wurz and Taponen were right with Voisin and Camara.
The biggest mover had been Ugo Ugochukwu, who had made 10 places from 26th to 16th. On the other hand, Joshua Dufek went from 12th to 19th. Tramnitz had made up six places and was now closing in on Ho in sixth.
Despite having fastest lap, Wurz was under pressure from Taponen on lap six and almost pulled off a brilliant dummy move at turn one. Taponen then did the same at turn four but couldn’t get ahead at turn five or six. meanwhile Sharp tried to go around the outside of Gerrard Xie at turn 12 but couldn’t.
Like in the sprint race, different battles began to emerge.
The following lap, three moves were made at turn one. Taponen got ahead of Wurz for third, Giusti got ahead of Noel Leon to get up to 11th and Mari Boya got ahead of Stenshorne for 13th. Boya and Stenshorne battled brilliantly but Boya held on.
Taponen and Wurz’s battling meant they lost DRS to Voisin. So in the top ten there was battles for first, third, fifth and tenth.
On lap eight, Tramnitz tried to pass Ho while Ho tried to pass Stromsted, but ran wide at turn three which gave Tramnitz momentum for him to get ahead. Giusti moved up to tenth ahead of Badoer and Stenshorne continued to lose places , losing 14th to Roman Bilinski.
Taponen was struggling with his pace, as he couldn’t progress on Voisin. Ho defended against Tsolov for seventh but lost another place.
Voisin too, lost momentum and Camara pulled a second out on the Rodin driver. Stromsted was not gaining on Trident teammate Wurz and was seeing a sea of Red Bulls in his mirror, as Red Bull duo Tramnitz and Tsolov were right behind him.
Stenshorne, Laurens van Hoepen and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak battled for 15th, with Inthraphuvasak making a great move at turn 11 on van Hoepen.
Boya continued to progress, moving up to 11th on his 21st birthday.
At the halfway mark, Camara was 2.3 seconds ahead of Voisin, who had three seconds on Taponen, with Wurz, Stromsted, Tramnitz, Tsolov, Ho, del Pino and Giusti all close behind Taponen.
F3 Podium battle in Bahrain commences
Wurz attempted a move on Taponen but couldn’t pass meanwhile Tramnitz was fed up of seeing Stromsted’s diffuser and managed to get up to fifth on the exit of turn four. Tsolov followed him through soon after at turn one on the next lap, showing their experience in the category in a race of tyre saving due to the heat of Bahrain which you could cut a knife through.
Tramnitz was now flying, being eight tenths quicker than Wurz and Taponen on lap 12.
Inthraphuvasak was having a good race, and he got ahead of Bilinski for 14th as Stenshorne was now down to 17th. Although Inthraphuvasak was slightly off the track trying to pass Bilinski.
Leon and Badoer continued to swap places for 12th. Aggressive racing sent Badoer off the track at turn six and he returned onto the track at turn eight. Their Prema teammate Ugochukwu was down in 22nd now after a good start where he ran as high as 16th, showing the struggles of the American to adapt to F3.
Leon and Badoer were both under pressure from Inthraphuvasak, Bilinski and van Hoepen, as Leon got ahead of Badoer at turn one and Inthraphuvasak followed him through. ART’s van Hoepen then got past Bilinski but forced him a bit wide.
Câmara was now four seconds up the road on Voisin, who was still two seconds clear of Taponen. Tramnitz began to apply pressure on Wurz on lap 16. Campos, MP and Trident were having good days, with nine of the top 12 cars being from those three teams. Only Rodin’s Voisin, ART’s Taponen and DAMS’ Ho were not from those three stables.
With six laps to go, Tramnitz went for the move around the outside of turn one on Wurz. The German got a good exit though, and managed to go around the outside in a brilliant move on Wurz. Tsolov once again attempted to follow Tramnitz through.
Wharton and Zagazeta had their second incident of the race at turn one, which put Zagaeta last by seven seconds from Wharton.
Now the battle for third was between Taponen and Tramnitz, although Wurz’s lack of pace meant he briefly lost DRS on the Finn. Speaking of Wurz, He was defending like crazy from Tsolov, who was in a Trident sandwich with Stromsted just behind him.
Nicola Lacorte was complaining about Javier Sagrera’s defensive driving which he claimed were deserving of a black flag.
Tramnitz closed on Taponen and Wurz was now two seconds behind the German with four laps left.
Both Red Bulls made moves, with Tsolov doing the switchback on Wurz at turn one and Tramnitz doing the same move he did on Wurz to Taponen to get to third. If Tramnitz and Tsolov had qualified better, they could have made an impact on the front runners of Câmara and Voisin.
Wurz’s struggles were apparent, as he was now defending from Stromsted, Giusti and Ho.
Final laps
Boya and del Pino, the two Spaniards, were now battling for the last point. Boya, who started 20th, managed to pass del Pino, the nephew of the Bahrain International Circuit record holder Pedro de la Rosa. Meanwhile Stromsted attempted to get ahead of Wurz but couldn’t make a move.
Ugochukwu now had a penalty for track limits, but it didn’t matter as he was 27th and 33 seconds ahead of Wharton.
Stromsted finally got ahead of Wurz with two laps to go and Giusti attempted and succeded to make a Tramnitz-esque move on Wurz.
Wurz, Ho, Boya and del Pino were now battling for what would be the last point.
Leon was now struggling and dropped back to 17th. Theophile Nael had a collision with him, but neither had damage. Nael got ahead.
Wurz lost out to Ho and almost to Boya before he attempted a move into turn one which forced Ho wide and helped Boya to move up to eighth. Wurz was now down to 11th. Del Pino managed to pass Ho at the line to get ninth.
Inthraphuvasak was penalised in 12th for the earlier move on Bilinski, which dropped him from 12th to 16th.
It was a dominant drive from Câmara ahead of Voisin, but the cameras were focused on the battle for fourth. Taponen held on to fifth.
Tramnitz had made some incredible progress and was only a few laps short of passing Voisin, which likely made MP and Tramnitz wonder what they could have done if they qualified better.
Here’s the full race results:
- Rafael Câmara
- Callum Voisin
- Tim Tramnitz
- Tuukka Taponen
- Nikola Tsolov
- Noah Stromsted
- Alessandro Giusti
- Mari Boya
- Bruno del Pino
- Christian Ho
- Charlie Wurz
- Laurens van Hoepen
- Roman Bilinski
- Santiago Ramos
- Theophile Nael
- Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
- Noel Leon
- Martinius Stenshorne
- Ivan Domingues
- Nicola Lacorte
- Brando Badoer
- Javier Sagrera
- Joshua Dufek
- Louis Sharp
- Nicola Marinangeli
- Gerrard Xie
- Ugo Ugochukwu
- James Wharton
- Matias Zagazeta
DNF. Freddie Slater
