Formula 3 delivers chaos and control as Tramnitz clinches Imola sprint win

Written By Trisha Lynnette 

Credit: Formula 3

The Formula 3 Sprint Race took place on Saturday at 10:05 AM CEST (8:05 AM GMT). Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport took the win as he led the grid from lap 3 until the very end. His teammate Bruno Del Pino took second place, his first podium for the season and in the championship. Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing took third as returning to the podium after his Sakhir Sprint Race win. Read more to know about the chaos filled Formula 3 Sprint Race.

The Sprint Race began on the dot, as drivers took their formation lap and warmed up their drivers. The grid was arranged in reversed order of Friday's qualifying with Del Pino in the first row, followed by teammate Tramnitz and Mari Boya of Campos Racing.

Once they were all at their positions the lights turned green and the drivers began driving with great speed. Del Pino had a good start which helped him maintain a good gap between him and Tramnitz for the first lap. Boya also had a good start of the line but held back from overtaking. 

A bit behind the front row, Ugo Ugochukwu of PREMA Racing tried to overtake his teammate Noel León, but failed to do so within the first lap. Lap 2 began and drivers now had DRS enabled which Tramnitz benefited from as he gained a great amount of speed - catching up to his teammate.

In the meantime, Louis Sharp of Rodin Motorsport tried to overtake Ugochukwu who was still battling with his teammate. An error of not defending while engaging in a battle between themselves caused them to lose their position to Sharp, who had reached P4. 

In lap 3, Tramnitz managed to overtake his teammate and became the race leader with two tenths of a second gap to Del Pino. Del Pino faced pressure from Boya as he tried to overtake the Spaniard for a better position. Sharp managed to set the fastest time as they completed lap 3. 

At the back of the grid, Ivan Domingues of VAR faced a bit of mishap as he spun on track, falling down to the bottom. The chaos didn’t end there as Nicola Marinangeli of AIX Racing had to retire from the race. This was because of a gravel trap that loosened his wheel causing his untimely retirement in the Sprint Race. 

The yellow flag was waved as the marshals tended to the damaged car and debris at the exit of turn 7. Safety car came out on track as Tramnitz led the pack, each driver weaving as they kept their tyres at the required temperature. The safety car came to an end in lap 8, the drivers prepared to race.

Credit: Formula 3

The green flag was waved and the drivers started to race once again, the grid constantly shifted as multiple drivers battled it out on the track. In the front, Tramnitz had a good lead while Del Pino defended Boya from his slipstream.

Tsolov managed to overtake his teammate Boya who slowly fell to the back of the pack. Boya faced some difficulties with the car and was immediately called to the pits, which led to his retirement from the Sprint Race. 

In lap 9, the yellow flag was waved as Matías Zagazeta of DAMS Racing was off the track in the gravel. This was due to a collision with Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport. Zagazeta retired while Voisin entered the pits to get his front wing replaced. At the same time Boya entered the pits for a check on the car but ended up retiring due to issues with the car. 

Meanwhile the drivers were racing under the safety car, maintaining the order and tyre temperature. Lap 11 began and the safety car ended, which left the drivers with six fast paced laps. Sharp still had the fastest lap in the race. 

Del Pino faced pressure from Tsolov but was able to pull through and maintain his spot. He had begun to eye Tramnitz' position and slowly reduced the gap between the two drivers to two tenths. However, Del Pino wasn’t able to get the right amount of speed to overtake his teammate. 

The stewards, after investigation, gave a ten second penalty to Voisin for the collision caused with Zagazeta. León went wide on track and fell from P7 to P10. Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport took this opportunity to put pressure on Ugochukwu and managed to overtake the PREMA driver. 

In the course of this, Tuukka Taponen of ART Grand Prix faced pressure from Noah Strømsted of Trident. Strømsted manoeuvred his way and overtook the Finnish driver, bringing in more points for Trident. As all this ensued, Nicola Lacorte of DAMS Racing and Laurens Van Hoepen of ART Grand Prix made contact as they raced uphill but neither faced critical damage.

Santiago Ramos of Van Amersfoort Racing also faced contact as he miscalculated his overtake of PREMA Racing Driver - Brando Badoer. This caused immense damage to his front wing and also caused him to fall to the bottom of the grid in the last lap. Following the Mexican, James Wharton of ART Grand Prix also faced a bit of lockup and drove on the grass. 

Tramnitz drove across the line, winning the Sprint Race and bringing home his first win of the season. Teammate Del Pino took P2 winning his first podium of the series. Tsolov managed to take P3 bringing a good result for Campos Racing, being the only driver from the team to score points. Tramnitz only gained ten points as Bilinski took the point for the fastest lap.

This result shortened the gap between championship leader Rafael Câmara who unfortunately did not score points in the race. 

Credit: Formula 3

Even for such a great result from the top three, was there something the drivers wished they could have changed or fine tuned if they raced again?

“I think for me, everything played out quite well. But yeah I mean to overtake in the start would have been nice of course probably then would have been in a situation early on to care a bit more about the tyres,” said winner Tramnitz at a press conference attended by DIVEBOMB. 

“But in the end probably I would have tried a shot for the fastest lap at a different point maybe where the tyres were a bit more alive. But apart from this I think we managed the race very well and the car felt quite good so I wouldn't change much,” he continued.

“I wanted to win, which was the main goal. But yeah I mean when you don’t have DRS from first it is always quite difficult to kind of battle. I think everything played out quite nicely for me, maybe yeah to be able to pull away more in the beginning and being always in that gap that Tim had in the end,” said Del Pino, having started from pole but finished at P2. 

“I wasn't quite close enough to overtake could've been the thing that could have changed but yeah I think for me everything played out quite nicely and to learn and the confidence it gave me is really good,” he added. 

“Yeah I think I would have gone a bit more aggressive in the beginning of the race as I took the long game approach and that compromised me to make up in the beginning.” said Tsolov. “But other than that I think later on management etc. I managed to adapt quite quickly and I think the pace was there toward the end.”

The podium saw two RedBull junior academy drivers take first and third in the race. Did they feel some kind of pressure as they entered the car dressed in one of the top academy’s colours? 

Tsolov said: “Obviously you always have pressure no matter where you are. I think so far I have been managing quite well, I think it only motivates me to do better and to work harder so I'm really happy and excited to be part of the RedBull junior program and to be honest I've only been improving myself ever since I joined so I am hoping to keep going that way”

Tramnitz said: “I would say that probably most of the pressure is coming from myself, just because I want to win and want to perform good. But of course we are here as well to secure us a place for next year and hopefully step up so we have to show every weekend that we are fast and doing a good job. And I mean in general I also see it like this that the RedBull academy is just helping me to progress and looking at all the opportunities you get because of RedBull is a very big motivation.”

The Imola Sprint Race proved to be one of chaos and control as some inevitably faced their blunders while others pulled through with a good result. F3 goes racing again on Sunday at 8:30 AM CEST (6:30 AM GMT) with Câmara leading the grid in the Feature Race. 

Make sure to catch the Feature Race live and if you can’t, don’t worry! Head back over to DIVEBOMB for all the action you might’ve missed.