Beganovic victorious in hard-fought F3 Feature Race

Dino Beganovic fought through a tyre-shredding Feature Race to stand on the top step for the first time in his F3 career, holding off a late attack from Leo Fornaroli at Albert Park.

Starting with two hungry Prema Racing drivers in his mirrors, Leo Fornaroli lined up from pole, angling his Trident to cover off Gabriele Mini.

As the lights went out, Fornaroli got an ideal jump, creating an instant gap between himself and Mini, with Dino Beganovic settling into third. 

Side-by-side into Turn 10, the battle for fourth heated up, with yesterday’s podium finisher Arvid Lindblad challenging Luke Browning for position.

The Williams Academy driver maintained his position before the tussling duo both lost out to Nikita Bedrin.

The race was brought to a halt, however, with the safety car being deployed to help clear a Lap 1 incident. 

Tommy Smith’s home weekend went from bad to worse when he was taken out by an overly ambitious Joesph Loake. 

After making up places off the line, the Van Amersfoort driver was squeezed between two cars as he defended the inside line at Turn 11, with contact sending Loake and Smith into the gravel trap to end their race.

Van Amersfoort’s bad luck wasn’t over, with Sophia Floersch forced to retire after making contact in the opening sector.

Following four laps behind the safety car, Fornaroli set off from Turn 12.

Browning instantly took the fight to Bedrin for P4, passing the PHM driver on the run to Turn 3. 

Lindblad followed him through, demoting Bedrin to P6.

Bedrin’s fight wasn’t over, however, coming under threat from Goethe on Lap 8. 

The pairing avoided near contact into Turn 3, with Goethe pushed wide and onto the gravel, seeing the interval increase.

Santiago Ramos was forced into the pits after receiving a puncture from Noel Leon’s front wing.

Leon soon followed suit, needing to change his front wing after damaging his endplate. 

Back out front, Fornaroli had broken free of the DRS threat, leaving it up to the two Prema Drivers to battle it out.

Beganovic was given the all-clear to attack his teammate, easing by Mini who was struggling with his tyres.

Mini soon lost out to Browning on Lap 13, with the Brit moving up into the final podium place.

F3’s last hoorah in Albert Park. Image: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images.

Gaining ground on the race leader, Beganovic set off on a calculated attack.

The Swede sat just two-tenths behind Fornaroli as they changed down the main straight to start Lap 14, waiting until the sweeping run to Turn 9 to make his move. 

Beganovic passed Fornaroli without much challenge, with the Trident driver saving his tyres and settling for P2.

Beyond the halfway mark, Christian Mansell’s run had been anything but clean.

On multiple occasions, the Australian ran wide in the opening stint, also making note of the speed differential between himself and Goethe. 

Mansell found himself in P10, claiming a single point on Lap 17.

With Beganovic’s tyres looking like an awful sight, the pace of his competitors grew beyond.

Fornaroli was back on the attack, sitting just four-tenths behind the leader as they began Lap 18. 

Behind him, Browning was within DRS range, with Mini gaining on the HiTech driver.

Just a few laps later, however, the #14 had dropped back, aiding Mini in his podium campaign as he was given the opportunity to advantage of DRS.

Mini had a look into Turn 3, instead, waiting for the perfect moment on the run down to Turn 9. 

Simultaneously, his teammate in the lead broke the DRS hold Fornaroli had on him, allowing Mini one and a half laps to chase his fellow Italian down.

Despite his best efforts, Mini was forced to switch back to a defensive focus, holding P3 all the way to the chequered flag. 

Fornaroli just didn’t have it in his tyres for one last attack, allowing Beganovic to cruise home to a maiden victory in Formula 3 after what was a tyre-shredder of a race.

Christian Mansell didn’t have the home race run that he would have hoped for, however, secured the final points position as he crossed the line, with Bedrin proving too strong ahead.

Formula 3 will have a long reset before their next round in Imola, taking place from May 17th to 19th.

Feature Race Results:

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