F3: Callum Voisin beats Sebastian Montoya to take his maiden F3 victory as Prema secures team title

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Callum Voisin managed his way through three Safety Car restarts to secure his maiden F3 victory at Spa. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the Formula 3 Feature Race.

Starting from pole, Callum Voisin maintained the lead in La Source with Sebastian Montoya slotting in second.

However, there was drama for the championship leader as Gabriele Mini span around at the first corner. The Italian could carry on, but he rejoined the field down in P29.

On Lap 3, the Safety Car was deployed when Martinius Stenshorne spun at Stavelot. ART Grand Prix debutant Tuukka Taponen was having his own separate incident coming into the corner as he collided with Joshua Dufek before spinning into the side of the Hitech.

On Lap 7, the safety car came back into the pits. The race leader had a great restart ahead of Montoya and Fornaroli, while Meguetounif’s charge continued as he overtook Dunne for fourth down the Kemmel Straight.

However, the action was halted again as another Safety Car was soon deployed after Sophia Floersch and Joseph Loake collided and spun off at Turn 9.

At the end of Lap 9, the field was released again with Voisin heading Montoya and Fornaroli. Alex Dunne had a difficult restart, and fell back to P10.

Just moments later, the ART driver Christian Mansell wiped out Arvid Lindblad at the Brussels hairpin. At the same time, Charlie Wurz touched the rear right tyre of Mari Boya, giving the Campos Racing driver a puncture, before he went into the barrier at Turn 11. The Austrian was then forced to come into the pit lane to replace a damaged front wing.

The safety car was deployed, and the field was released again with only two laps left.

Voisin got a great start to hold on to his lead from Montoya. However, Noel Leon overtook Sami Meguetounif into the Les Combes corner.

On the last lap, Fornaroli got very close to Montoya on the Kemmel straight, and thought better of it and stayed behind.

Voisin look in control of the race on the final lap, and crossed the line first to take the victory, with Montoya in second, while Fornaroli finished third to take the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.

León finished fourth ahead of Meguetounif, with Luke Browning in sixth ahead of Jenzer Motorsport’s Max Esterson. Santiago Ramos made it three Trident cars in the points, with Tim Tramnitz and Dunne rounding out the points for MP.

Commenting on his victory, Voisin was understandably delighted to take his main FIA F3 win.

“Extremely happy, first win for me, first win for the team, can’t thank everybody enough for everything that they have done, the hard work and see you guys in a couple of weeks in Monza.”

Finishing the race in P3, Leonardo Fornaroli sits now on 129 points, leading the the Drivers’ Championship, one point ahead of Gabriele Minì who finished in P13, while Luke Browning is third on 123.

For the second consecutive weekend, Arvid Lindblad fails to score and he stays on 113 points in fourth, while Dino Beganovic rounds out the top five on 100.

In the Teams’ Standings, PREMA Racing are on 341 points and hold a 115-point lead over ART Grand Prix, making them 2024 FIA Formula 3 Champions, with the French outfit unable to catch them at Monza. Trident are on 217 points in third, ahead of Campos Racing on 175, with Hitech Pulse-Eight on 149.