Written by Arabella
The championship standings after round 5 at Spa showed Tridents Jack Doohan to be closing in on championship leader Dennis Hauger. Arriving into Zandvoort, Hauger knew he had to perform well after his difficult weekend in Spa in order to keep a sufficient gap between the 2, otherwise in risk of losing the championship…
Practice times were topped by Red Bull junior driver Jak Crawford with the Hitech flying to the top of the time sheets with a 1:25.535. Iwasa had a little spin however managing to regain control and carry on as normal. Onto qualifying where Hunter Yeany bought out the red flag after a spin into turn 3. It was Dennis Hauger who secured pole position, putting in a lap of 1:24.580. This has resulted in 50% of pole positions this year belonging to the Prema Driver. David Schumacher also recorded his best qualifying performance with P2.
Race 1 saw Cordeel starting from pole position with the reverse grid format. Sargeant got a good start however Leclerc got an even better start jumping from 3rd to 1st in the first corner. Smolyar and Cordeel made contact leaving Cordeel spinning and dropping down the race order immediately resulting in a 10 second time penalty for Smolyar. Up front, Sargeant tried to come back to battling Leclerc yet the Prema led the way and Hauger also got a good start getting up to 8th position within the first few corners. Two cars made there way across the gravel trap, just managing to re-join the track. Lap 7 saw the top two battling for the lead again with Leclerc locking up and Sargeant right on his rear wing but Leclerc maintained position. David Schumacher had to take to the escape road after battling with Lorenzo Colombo meaning David lost places, however, Olli Caldwell gained 11th position from a successful move on Colombo later on. Hauger then attempted a risky move on Victor Martins turning to him driving across the gravel and loosing positions down in 9th. Lap 16 is where Johnathan Hoggard found himself in the wall as well as Hunter Yeany bringing out the safety car. Lap 21 is where racing got back underway and Leclerc immediately tried to break any tow back to Sargeant. Meanwhile, Hauger managed to regain positions back to 7th in another bold move on Martins- this time paying off. It was Arthur Leclerc who took the race win for a second time this season followed by Sargeant and Iwasa.
Pole position in race 2 was held by Ido Cohen although due to him not getting a great start, Novalak took the lead. Caldwell and Hauger came side by side, battling for position seeing Hauger set to take the place until yellow flag came out in sector 1 leading to safety car due to Colombo having a puncture and sending it straight into the wall. The restart on lap 6 wasn’t great for Iwasa being another victim of the escape road and loosing positions however a few corners later, Martins took 3rd from Vesti. Martins then went to take 2nd from Cohen using DRS on the straight and Vesti followed also taking Cohen for 3rd. Martins then took the lead of the race on lap 16 leaving Novalak in 2nd while behind, Hauger made moves on Caldwell and Cohen to get to 4th. Cordeel then bought out the safety car after beaching the car. Lap 23 was the restart that saw Hauger gain a right rear puncture and drop out of the points. The final laps were full of drama with Schumacher taking a place from Caldwell and Doohan off the road also out of the points. Victor Martins became a first time F3 race winner. Novalak took 2nd and Vesti took 3rd.
Race 3 was pole position for Hauger who got a good start covering off Schumacher and maintaining his lead. Doohan dropped to 6th in the opening corners, leaving his hopes of winning the championship slipping away. On lap 4, Caio Collet maked it past Sargeant and then challenged Crawford however couldn’t quite get the move to stick. Martins and Schumacher then challenged for 2nd but it was Schumacher that was able to keep the position. Collet was then back, finishing the battle with Crawford for 7th and looking very strong on a track with little overtaking spots. Juan Manuel Correa then made a sweeping move round the outside of Tijmen Van De Helm for 22nd. Yellow flag in sector 1 due to Matteo Nannini being forced into the gravel by Correa leaving him with a 10 second penalty. Martins then made contact with Schumacher leaving the Trident out of the race from 2nd, Martins a 10 second penalty and a virtual safety car being bought out. Dennis Hauger took the chequered flag as the winner and extended his championship lead. Novalak and Smolyar come 2nd and 3rd.
This weekend at Zandvoort showed us once again how dominant Prema can be, taking a pole and 2 wins and also looking to take the championship with Dennis Hauger. Zandvoort also showed us how quick the FIA were to make decisions and stick to them after a chaotic weekend in Spa beforehand. Now with just 1 round to go in Sochi, all eyes are on Hauger.
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