Written by Juan Arroyo
Franco Colapinto secured his third win of the season in a rain-filled Sprint at Silverstone on Saturday. The start of the race was delayed due to rain falling on the starting grid, leading to a debate about whether to start on wet or hard slick tyres.
Polesitter Sebastian Montoya held onto the lead at the start, but Barnard made a move for second place ahead of Edgar, with Colapinto overtaking both to take the lead and pushing Barnard back to third.
As the rest of the field warmed up their tyres, Browning, Mini, Bortoleto, and Aron managed to pass MP Motorsport's Edgar, who dropped to eighth place.
During the initial laps, the top seven drivers remained within DRS range of each other. Montoya struggled to create a gap with Barnard closely behind.
On lap 5, Gabriel Bortoleto attempted to regain fifth place by overtaking Mini around the outside of Stowe, but he couldn't complete the move. One lap later, Bortoleto tried again to overtake at Club Corner, and this time the job was made easier as the Alpine junior went wide, allowing the Brazilian to pass.
Further back, Trident's Fornaroli overtook Martí on the Hangar straight to claim eighth place.
As the conditions worsened, Faría slid off the track and onto the run-off area. Given the increased rain, a safety car was deployed on lap 8. Beganovic, Bedrin, Tsolov, Floersch, Gray, and Faria opted for wet tyres.
On the following lap, Aron, Browning, and Goethe pitted for wet tyres as well, but the top four drivers chose to stay out on slick tyres.
By the end of lap 12, the rain had lightened up, but there were still wet patches on the track. The safety car returned to the pits, and the race resumed. Montoya, still in the lead, was tapped by Barnard into Turn 1, managing to save the car but dropping down to 17th place.
On lap 13, the wet tyres seemed to be the fastest choice as Colapinto built a comfortable lead. Meanwhile, Aron and Beganovic, who had started from the back, climbed up to sixth and seventh places, respectively.
Action unfolded as the pace gap between wet and slick tyres narrowed. Mini regained his position from Browning, who then lost out to Barter, while Fornaroli took 11th place from Tsolov.
Colapinto continued to extend his lead over Bortoleto, creating a gap of 4.7 seconds with three laps remaining. Mini and Barter, both on hard tyres, pushed the wet-running Aron down to seventh place.
Montoya overtook Martí on lap 16 to claim tenth place and followed it up with a double overtake on Aron and Beganovic through Maggots and Becketts.
Eventually, Colapinto of MP Motorsport secured victory with a 3.7-second lead over Bortoleto. They were followed by Campos' Mansell, who earned his first Formula 3 podium after an exciting battle with Caio Collet on the final lap.
Mini finished in fifth place, followed by Barter, Fornaroli, Montoya, and Cohen. Hitech's Montoya recovered to eighth place, followed by Ido Cohen, the Rodin Carlin driver, scoring his first points of the season.