F3 2021: Round 1 Montmelo Circuit Barcelona

Published: 09 May 2021

New Race Format for FIA Formula 3

Barcelona, May 9th 2021. New beginnings for the opening round of F3 Championship 2021 held at Montmelo Circuit in Spain. 4,655km of curves with few chances to overtake, making qualifying session more important than ever. From this year F3 events will adopt F2 race format. Here is a brief explanation of the race weekend schedule:

  • On Fridays: qualifying session
  • On Saturdays: Sprint Race 1 with reversed grid for the first 10 drivers of the qualifying session + Sprint Race 2 with reversed grid for the first 10 drivers of Sprint Race 1
  • On Sundays: Feature Race as per qualifying session

It is clear that the organization's aim is to keep the championship as open as possible. The new racing format is a promise of shear entertainment and fierce competition. In this new F3 season Pakelo Lubricant is supporting Matteo Nannini driving for HWA Racelab Team and the tree drivers of Trident Motorsport Team: Clément Novalak and two sons of former drivers, Jack Doohan son of former MotoGP rider Mick Doohan and David Schumacher, son of former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher. 

On Friday qualifying session is dominated by Norwegian Prema driver Dennis Hauger, followed by Trident driver Jack Doohan and French MP Motorsport driver Victor Martins. P4 for Matteo Nannini and P7 and P9 respectively for Novalak and Schumacher.

Sprint Race 1 opens pretty well with David Schumacher and Clément Novalak good positioning on the grid. Novalak closes in P2 just behind Russian Aleksandr Smoljar. Sprint Race 2 - as expected - turns the tables. The reversed grid fosters Schumacher's initiative to take the lead but a light collision with another contestant stops his lucky session. And since the story always tends to repeat itself. Matteo Nannini takes the lead after Schumacher's forced retirement but a collision with Hauger's Formula 3 car threw him off the track at the penultimate lap. Novalak closes in P5 and Doohan makes an impressive P8, starting from the bottom P17. 

Feature Race is particularly crucial for all the contestants. Jack Doohan scores a deserved P2 and Matteo Nannini is just a step behind him in P3 in his Dallara car #14. 

The first round of the season closes with Dennis Hauger leading the general standing with 34 points, followed by Olli Caldwell which is only 2 points behind and Trident driver Clément Novalak which has proved his consistency throughout all the racing weekend. Jack Doohan is in P5, Matteo Nannini in P9 of the general standing. P16 for David Schumacher that has all the time in the world to reach the teammates in the following rounds. Formula 3 next round will be disputed in June 25th-27th at Le Castellet Circuit. 

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