France F3: Doohan beats Hauger on drying track to claim first series win

The Australian, who started in fourth, passed championship leader Hauger on lap 14 to take the win, finishing 1.5s in front to follow up his maiden podium in the Barcelona feature race last time out.

There was less than a second between the pair in the charge to the finish, but Red Bull Junior Doohan - the son of legendary motorcycle racer Mick - emerged victorious.

MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet finished third to take his second podium of the year, beating team-mate and fellow Alpine Academy driver Victor Martins to third, despite the latter having started there.

Trident’s Clement Novalak finished fifth, with polesitter Frederik Vesti (ART Grand Prix) slipping back to sixth.

Hitech Grand Prix’s Ayuma Iwasa finished in seventh as ART Grand Prix’s Alexander Smolyar, who won Saturday’s first sprint race, rounded off the points finishers.

Hauger took the lead off the line from Vesti amid a lot of spray, with rain having fallen on Sunday morning, while Novalak held third.

A Virtual Safety Car was called on the third lap after Prema Racing’s Olli Caldwell went off the track and retired.

Logan Sargeant (Charouz Racing System) and Campos Racing’s Pierre-Louis Chovet also failed to finish the race, in a blow to 2020 title contender Sargeant's championship aspirations.

 

By lap 6, Vesti and Novalak were tussling for second, but the former soon dropped behind MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins and Doohan to fifth.

The following lap, Doohan continued his charge, taking third from Martins, before taking second from Vesti on lap 10, taking advantage of an oversteery moment for the Mercedes junior.

Doohan then pressurised on Hauger for the lead and on lap 15, eventually took the spot at Turn 4.

Charouz Racing System’s Rashad de Gerus took the fastest lap on lap 17 as the only driver who pitted for slicks, but finished down in 21st.

Race two winner Arthur Leclerc made another incredible charge through the field. The Prema driver, and younger brother of Ferrari Formula 1 racer Charles started last, as in race one, but came through to finish 13th.

France F3 race 3 results - 20 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Jack Doohan	Trident	-
2	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	1.500	1.500
3	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	5.000	5.000
4	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	7.200	7.200
5	Clement Novalak	Trident	14.200	14.200
6	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	17.900	17.900
7	Ayumu Iwasa	HitechGP	23.000	23.000
8	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix	24.800	24.800
9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	25.500	25.500
10	Jak Crawford	HitechGP	28.600	28.600
11	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	34.100	34.100
12	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	36.000	36.000
13	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	39.000	39.000
14	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	41.800	41.800
15	Roman Staněk	HitechGP	42.300	42.300
16	Tijmen van	MP Motorsport	44.300	44.300
17	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	45.300	45.300
18	Johnathan Hoggard	Jenzer Motorsport	45.800	45.800
19	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos Racing	47.600	47.600
20	Matteo Nannini	HWA AG	48.500	48.500
21	Reshad de	Charouz Racing System	48.800	48.800
22	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA AG	53.900	53.900
23	Rafael Villagómez	HWA AG	54.600	54.600
24	Ido Cohen	Carlin	56.600	56.600
25	Amaury Cordeel	Campos Racing	1'02.000	1'02.000
26	Filip Ugran	Jenzer Motorsport	1'08.200	1'08.200
27	David Schumacher	Trident	1'08.500	1'08.500
28	Pierre-Louis Chovet	Campos Racing	2 laps
29	Logan Sargeant	Charouz Racing System	12 laps
30	Olli Caldwell	Prema Powerteam	18 laps
View full results