Formula 3: Nikola Tsolov claims his second F3 victory in Spielberg

Nikola Tsolov took Spielberg Sprint Race victory in a three-way battle with Martinius Stenshorne and ART Grand Prix teammate Christian Mansell. The Bulgarian pulled off a late-race overtake just before the second of two Safety Cars and held off Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Stenshorne on a final lap shootout for his second win of the year.

Stenshorne started the F3 sprint from pole position, but Christian Mansell managed to take over the lead as the pair the pair headed into Turn 1.

The Hitech driver tried a re-pass into Turn 3 but was left running off the track, giving Tsolov momentum to take second position into Turn 4, making it an ART one-two.

Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic span around at Turn 1, falling from inside the top 10 down to 25th. Due to the stricken car of Kacper Sztuka, the safety car was deployed.

Racing resumed on Lap 5, and Mansell was able to retain the advantage in front. However, Tsolov was able to get alongside teammate Mansell into Turn 4 and used his DRS to take the lead on Lap 7.

Browning moved himself into the points-paying positions at the expense of Tim Tramnitz, moving down the inside at Turn 3 on Lap 10 to secure 10th from the MP Motorsport driver.

On Lap 12, championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli put a brave move on Bedrin at Turn 6 to move up to 14th.

Three laps later, Mansell re-took the lead of the race from Tsolov at Turn 3.

Onto Lap 17 and the fight for the lead continued, with Tsolov getting back through on Mansell at Turn 4, a slow corner exit for the Australian allowed Stenshorne a run through Turn 5, putting the Norwegian up to second.

As the race neared its conclusion, Montoya made contact with Dunne and was left spinning at Turn 4. The Colombian driver was out of his car and OK, but the crash required another Safety Car.

When the safety car was withdrawn, there was only one lap to go. Tsolov got the restart he needed to put some distance between himself and Stenshorne, and the Bulgarian earned his second Sprint Race victory of the year ahead of the Hitech driver.

Mansell rounded out the podium in third to ensure two ARTs made the rostrum, while Dunne ended fourth ahead of van Hoepen in P5.

Minì took sixth ahead of Goethe, Tramnitz, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel León and Meguetounif, with the Frenchman rounding out the points in P10.

Commenting on his victory, Tsolov noted: “Great result again, another win for me. It’s the Sprint Race so hopefully we can put the new tyres on tomorrow and recover some places and get more points in the Feature Race.”

Leonardo Fornaroli leads Luke Browning as neither of the top two drivers in the Championship added to their points tallies in the Sprint, on 84 and 79 points respectively. Gabriele Minì closes the gap in third position, now on 77 points.

Arvid Lindblad remains in the top five places, six points behind his PREMA teammate in fourth while Oliver Goethe is fifth, now on 67 points for Campos Racing.