F3 Spain: Vidales holds off Crawford challenge for sprint victory

The Campos Racing rookie had a strong start and held onto the lead, fending off second-place starter Juan Manuel Correa (ART Grand Prix) at Turn 1.

Crawford made it up to second place by lap five and had closed in on the leader by lap 12 before the pair tussled at Turn 1, sending the Prema Racing driver wide in an incident which will be investigated after the race.

The move allowed Vidales to build a 1.5s lead, which he maintained until the end to take his first series win at his home race.

Crawford took his third consecutive podium, having also finished second in the feature race in Imola and third in the sprint.

Caio Collet completed the podium for MP Motorsport, having started fifth before passing Kaylen Frederick (Hitech) for fourth on lap 13 and swooping past Correa on the main straight just two laps from the end of the race.

Alexander Smolyar (MP Motorsport) had a great start off the line, having started ninth and making up two places - taking seventh place from Prema’s Ollie Bearman on lap two, eventually finishing sixth.

Team-mates Bearman and Arthur Leclerc, who started sixth and seventh respectively, tussled from the start, with Leclerc overtaking the Briton on lap four.

The Monegasque Ferrari junior completed another trademark charge through the field, picking off Frederick and taking advantage of a tussle between Smolyar and Correa to take fifth place on the penultimate lap.

He made it past the American on the last lap to take fourth place, giving him the championship lead after Victor Martins was forced to retire early on.

Correa took fifth place, with Frederick in seventh and Sunday’s feature race polesitter Roman Stanek in eighth.

Having started sixth, Bearman suffered late on, falling out of the top 10 to finish 12th.

Franco Colapinto was forced to retire after the engine cover flew off his Van Amersfoort Racing-run car on lap nine, resulting in him being shown a black and white flag.

Formula 3 Barcelona sprint race results - 20 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	David Vidales	Campos Racing
2	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	1.200
3	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	6.400
4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	9.000
5	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	10.300
6	Alexander Smolyar	MP Motorsport	11.200
7	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	11.800
8	Roman Staněk	Trident	12.300
9	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	15.200
10	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP	16.000
11	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	16.900
12	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	17.400
13	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	18.100
14	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	19.900
15	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	23.400
16	Oliver Rasmussen	Trident	24.200
17	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	24.800
18	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin	25.400
19	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	29.700
20	Lirim Zendeli	Charouz Racing System	32.100
21	Zane Maloney	Trident	35.700
22	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	36.200
23	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	39.500
24	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System	39.900
25	Brad Benavides	Carlin	41.100
26	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System	42.100
27	Hunter Yeany	Campos Racing	1'08.600
28	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	4 laps
29	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	10 laps
30	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	13 laps
View full results