Prema’s Logan Sargeant extended his lead at the top of the Formula 3 drivers’ standings after finishing third behind HWA’s Jake Hughes and Red Bull junior Liam Lawson.
Sargeant had started the race from pole position but soon found himself under intense pressure from Hughes, who eventually found a way past on lap 7 and built up a comfortable gap to the American.
It looked as it Sargeant would finish second with two laps to go, before a bold move from Lawson around the outside at Turn 1 saw him hold the inside line and make the move stick into Turn 2. And that was the way the top three finished, Clement Novalak fourth ahead of David Beckman and Oscar Piastri, who dropped two places from his starting grid position.
.@LoganSargeant takes podium finish to increase @FIAFormula3 championship lead
📰R06 Barcelona – FIA Formula 3 Race 1 Reporthttps://t.co/G0z47mYrSA pic.twitter.com/tLsnXn2OsI
— PREMA (@PREMA_Team) August 15, 2020
“P3 is not what we were aiming for at all, but at the end of the day, we just struggled for outright pace,” said Sargeant in his team’s press release. “I’m not disappointed, I’m just going to have a look at where we went wrong. For sure we will have to make some changes for tomorrow, but if anyone can come back, it’s going to be me and Prema. Still looking forward to tomorrow, I’m trying to get as many points as I can.”
It means that Sargeant extends his championship lead over his Prema teammate to 19 points, but Piastri will be looking to make amends when he starts from fifth on the grid for Sunday’s sprint race, three places ahead of Sargeant.
“I ended up sixth in the race, not really what I was looking for,” said Piastri. “It was all going okay until the safety-car restart when I picked up some understeer and got stuck on the sausage kerb. That was pretty much game over for the rest of the race. We will try to bounce back tomorrow and try to salvage some points back for the weekend.”
Race 1 Podium @FIAFormula3 #FIAF3 #SpanishGP #WeRaceAsOne pic.twitter.com/Zk1IHIGT0K
— PREMA (@PREMA_Team) August 15, 2020