F3 Britain: Hadjar seals sprint victory after late Martins pass

The Hitech GP driver lined up in fourth but passed Kush Maini for third at the Club chicane on lap four, before swooping past Reece Ushijima for second place at Stowe several laps later.

Championship leader Martins (ART) remained at the front for much of the 17-lap race, having taken the lead off the line from polesitter Ushijima, but Hadjar eventually made it past two laps from the end around the outside of Stowe.

Hadjar had been running fourth in the standings, 15 points adrift of his fellow Frenchman, but the win moves him up to third at the halfway point of the season.

Martins settled for second, while Van Amersfoort Racing's Ushijima rounded off the podium places.

The start was initially aborted after Carlin’s Brad Benavides suffered an issue on the formation lap, with a second formation lap being run prior to the race start. The rookie eventually made his way round to the pits, and rejoined six laps down.

Martins took the lead into Abbey off the line, while Ushijima and Maini tussled for second. Further back, Prema Racing’s Ollie Bearman lost two places on the first lap into the Club chicane, with Maloney taking seventh place.

Jonny Edgar, making his return for Carlin after taking an illness-enforced break from racing, also dropped two places to David Vidales and Franco Colapinto to run in 15th.

Hadjar moved up to third on lap four, while the following lap Ushijima was running within 0.5s of Martins out front as the top three bunched up and Martins eventually moved into second at Stowe.

The safety car was deployed on lap 10 after Charouz Racing System team-mates Laszlo Toth and Zdenek Chovanec collided at Club, with the latter attempting to move down the inside before hitting Toth’s rear right tyre.

Chovanec, who returns to F3 this weekend in place of Lirim Zendeli, was unable to get going again with damaged suspension which prompted the safety car.

Racing resumed on lap 13, with Hadjar closing in on Martins for the lead, biding his time and eventually taking the lead around the outside of Stowe on the penultimate lap.

Maini took fourth, with Hitech’s Kaylen Frederik in fifth and Roman Stanek, currently second in the standings, in sixth for Trident.

Maloney finished seventh, with the Prema trio of Arthur Leclerc, Bearman and Jak Crawford rounding off the top 10.

FIA F3 Silverstone sprint race - results

Cla	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP
2	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	0.700
3	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	1.300
4	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	2.900
5	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	5.800
6	Roman Staněk	Trident	6.500
7	Zane Maloney	Trident	7.200
8	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	7.600
9	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	7.900
10	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	8.500
11	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	9.200
12	David Vidales	Campos Racing	10.900
13	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	11.200
14	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin	12.300
15	Jonny Edgar	Trident	12.900
16	Hunter Yeany	Campos Racing	13.300
17	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	14.000
18	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	14.300
19	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	14.900
20	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	15.200
21	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	16.900
22	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	17.700
23	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	18.200
24	Filip Ugran	MP Motorsport	18.900
25	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System	21.100
26	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	21.300
27	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	23.300
	Brad Benavides	Carlin
	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System
	Zdenek Chovanec	Charouz Racing System
View full results