Austria F3: Hauger wins dramatic sprint race from 12th

The championship leader started 12th but fought through the field to take the chequered flag, avoiding a collision on track ahead of him in a race which saw four different leaders throughout.

Team-mate Olli Caldwell finished second, with polesitter Logan Sargeant (Charouz Racing System) in third, only to be dropped to 15th place due to a post-race penalty which promoted Jack Doohan to the third place.

Matteo Nannini (HWA Racelab) and the Trident of Clement Novalak had been tussling for first position, but collided on lap 19, taking the frontrunners out of contention, while Sargeant managed to avoid the incident to take the podium.

Following the post-race penalties, Enzo Fittipaldi was promoted to fourth place ahead of MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins in fifth, with Jonny Edgar moving up to sixth.

Ido Cohen of Carlin stalled on the grid before the formation lap and was pushed back to the pitlane by marshals, continuing his bad luck after encountering issues in qualifying on Friday.

Nannini took the lead into Turn 1, with Caldwell up to third before he was overtaken by Novalak.

Martins was down to fifth off the line, with Prema’s Arthur Leclerc also losing places after a poor start, while Vesti also struggled off the line.

By the second lap, Cohen’s bad luck had continued, with his car stopping at the side of the track, prompting yellow flags before a virtual safety car.

As that ended on lap 4, Nannini had extended his lead, while Hauger had made up five places to move from 12th for seventh.

Olli Caldwell, Prema Racing, Victor Martins, MP Motorsport Jack Doohan, Trident

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

On the fifth lap, the first with DRS, Sargeant closed the gap to Nannini, while further back, David Schumacher (Trident) and Calan Williams (Jenzer Motorsport) made contact, pushing the former off the road and handing the latter a five-second penalty.

Martins made an uncharacteristic mistake on lap 6, going wide onto the gravel and losing a place to Hauger.

Sargeant finally recaptured the lead on lap 9, going deep on the brakes to pass Nannini, before the pair swapped positions again the following lap, with Novalak taking second from Sargeant and pushing him into third.

Hauger passed Doohan into fifth on lap 11, while Novalak took the lead, forcing Nannini wide.

Elsewhere in the pack, Leclerc went off into the gravel, having been running in seventh, and attempted to continue but returned to the pitlane and was out of the car, ending his race.

The frontrunners continued to trade places, with Nannini and Sargeant swapping the top spot between them several times in just a few laps, amid which Sargeant was shown the black and white flags for exceeding track limits.

Hauger moved up to third ahead of Sargeant on lap 18, before Caldwell also passed the American driver, pushing him down into fifth.

Novalak took the lead on lap 19, but just two laps later was involved in a collision with Nannini, taking the two frontrunners out of the running and across the gravel.

The incident handed Hauger the lead, with Caldwell into second and Sargeant in third.

Hitech Grand Prix’s Ayuma Iwasa also charged through the field, making up nine places to finish tenth.

The reverse grid means Carlin’s Jonny Edgar will start on pole, with Enzo Fittipaldi (Charouz Racing System) in second and Alexander Smolyar (ART Grand Prix) in third.

Austria F3 - Race 1 results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	24	33'39.140			184.544
2	Olli Caldwell	Prema Powerteam	24	33'44.600	5.460	5.460	184.502
3	Jack Doohan	Trident	24	33'45.646	6.506	1.046	183.951
4	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	24	33'47.817	8.677	2.171	183.755
5	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	24	33'48.201	9.061	0.384	184.174
6	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	24	33'48.312	9.172	0.111	183.710
7	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	24	33'48.425	9.285	0.113	183.699
8	Jak Crawford	HitechGP	24	33'48.883	9.743	0.458	184.112
9	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	24	33'49.499	10.359	0.616	183.602
10	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	24	33'49.818	10.678	0.319	183.573
11	Roman Staněk	HitechGP	24	33'50.226	11.086	0.408	183.537
12	David Schumacher	Trident	24	33'50.828	11.688	0.602	183.482
13	Tijmen van	MP Motorsport	24	33'51.275	12.135	0.447	183.442
14	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix	24	33'52.154	13.014	0.879	183.815
15	Logan Sargeant	Charouz Racing System	24	33'52.232	13.092	0.078	184.262
16	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	24	33'54.136	14.996	1.904	183.184
17	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	24	33'54.388	15.248	0.252	184.066
18	Johnathan Hoggard	Jenzer Motorsport	24	33'59.288	20.148	4.900	182.721
19	László Tóth	Campos Racing	24	34'00.558	21.418	1.270	182.607
20	Reshad de	Charouz Racing System	24	34'00.990	21.850	0.432	182.569
21	Rafael Villagómez	HWA AG	24	34'01.467	22.327	0.477	182.526
22	Amaury Cordeel	Campos Racing	24	34'09.745	30.605	8.278	182.680
23	Matteo Nannini	HWA AG	24	34'16.390	37.250	6.645	183.884
24	Filip Ugran	Jenzer Motorsport	24	34'37.718	58.578	21.328	181.969
25	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos Racing	24	34'45.885	1'06.745	8.167	178.639
26	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA AG	24	34'51.981	1'12.841	6.096	178.119
	Ayumu Iwasa	HitechGP	24	33'46.733	7.593		183.853
	Clement Novalak	Trident	20	4 laps
	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	12	12 laps
	Ido Cohen	Carlin	0	24 laps
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