Nikola Tsolov drove a dominant race to win the F3 Feature Race at the Austrian GP, beating Martinius Stenshorne and Tim Tramnitz to the chequered flag. Reducing his gap to Câmara to just 1 point in the championship.
With collisions and clashes throughout the Sprint race, James Wharton took his maiden victory after starting on reverse pole. However, with the Feature Race looming, Nikola Tsolov was looking for the championship lead.
If Tsolov took the win, and Câmara failed to move forward from seventh, the Bulgarian would leave the weekend as the championship leader. Brad Benavides put the AIX racing machinery on the front row, looking for a strong result for the team.
Tsolov led the cars onto the grid, lining up in his top spot ready for lights out. Nikita Johnson pulled in as the final car on the grid, and the lights went out.
A clean start
Tsolov had a strong start, maintaining his lead. But Inthraphuvasak stalled on the grid. Câmara went side by side with Badoer into turn 4, with someone bumping the back of him but making it up to fifth.
As the first lap came to a close, Tsolov had already built up a gap, protecting him from DRS. Noah Strømsted dove down the inside of Benavides. He was unable to get by as DRS was enabled. Coming into the start finish straight, Strømstead made the move and made it stick.
Benavides then lost a place to Ugo Ugochukwu, who slipped into third. Câmara joined the fight into fourth as he made it past Benavides, but he also had a fight from Callum Voisin’s Rodin to deal with behind him.
Ugo Ugochukwu made the pass on Strømsted for second, as the fighting for the podium places allowed Tsolov to build his gap to the field to two seconds.
By Lap 6, the gap to Tsolov was very slowly coming down, sitting at 1.8 seconds. Significantly for the championship title fight, Câmara made a move around the outside of Strømsted, into the final podium position.
Câmara made a bold dive down the inside of Ugochukwu, but went too deep to make it stick. Then into the next slew of corners, Câmara did the same move again. This time, the championship leader made it stick and took second place.
Câmara set his sights on his main championship rival, who sat 1.8 seconds down the road.
Mari Boya made a lunge on the inside of Brad Badoer but as both ran wide, Tim Tramnitz slid past, gaining two places and sitting in seventh.
Halfway point
Voisin and Stenshorne were fighting for fifth, with Stenshorne closing in on the gear box of the Rodin car. Benavides made a move back up the order, but the places he lost in the first stint, leaving him in 11th.
Stenshorne made it past Voisin into fifth as Voisin fell into the jaws of Tramnitz’ MP Motorsport machinery. Fighting for position, Voisin was pushed into the gravel and fell to tenth.
Badoer’s PREMA came into the pits, retiring the car after suffering front suspension damage from contact earlier in the race.
Stenshorne continued his climb through the order, getting past Strømsted for third place. As the race passes the halfway point, drivers were beginning to struggle with their tyres.
The gap to Tsolov grew, with a healthy 3.8 second gap on lap 17. The order was slowly starting to spread out, but the fight within the top five was still tight. Stenshorne who sat in third was lapping three tenths a lap faster than Câmara, getting DRS on Lap 18.
The gap was down to just 0.2 seconds, the Trident trying to hold off the McLaren liveried Hitech. Further back Strømsted ran wide, losing place to Tamnitz and allowing Ugochukwu past.
Stenshorne made the pass on Câmara, the Championship leader not putting up a fight, knowing he lacked the pace of the Hitech he was fighting. The gap to Tsolov now 4.8 seconds out in front.
Câmara at risk
On lap 21, Câmara held onto the back of Stenshorne, taking advantage of the DRS available to help maintain his gap to Tramnitz in fourth.
Mari Boya and Tamnitz both were showing incredible speed, both on for a potential third place finish. Lap 24, Tramniz made a move on Câmara into second.
The championship leader conceded the place but desperately needed to hold on to those in front as Mari Boya made a pass in turn 9 on Câmara.
Coming into the final laps, Ugochukwu and the pack behind him all closed in. the McLaren junior made it past Câmara as the Brazilian struggled to keep the pace with those around him.
Mari Boya closed in on Tim Tramnitz looking for the final podium position as Nikola Tsolov neared the chequered flag with his 6.5 second lead. Making it another Red Bull junior winning at the Red Bull Ring.
Câmara finished down in sixth, which brings the championship gap to just one point.
