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Spa F3: Colombo dominates wet race by 13s after delayed start

Lorenzo Colombo took his first ever FIA Formula 3 win in a soaked sprint race at Spa, leading by over 13 seconds to take a storming debut victory.

Lorenzo Colombo, Campos Racing Leads Jak Crawford, Hitech Grand Prix

Lorenzo Colombo, Campos Racing Leads Jak Crawford, Hitech Grand Prix

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The start of the race was delayed by an hour amid heavy rain and a drenched circuit, with an attempted start aborted as the poor weather resumed after a brief respite.

The safety car eventually came in at the end of lap three, leaving the drivers to race, albeit with incredibly poor visibility.

Campos Racing rookie Colombo, whose best finish was previously seventh, gained redemption after his win at the Hungaroring was taken away from him for a safety car distance violation.

Jak Crawford (Hitech Grand Prix) finished in second, with team-mate Roman Stanek finishing in third to take his second podium in three races.

Frederik Vesti came in fourth for ART Grand Prix, having started in sixth, with Victor Martins (MP Motorsport) in fifth.

As racing got underway, Collet and Martins made contact while battling Logan Sargeant (Charouz Racing System), with ART’s Alexander Smolyar also dropping back, although both MP Motorsport cars emerged unscathed.

On lap five, Collet moved round the outside of Clement Novalak (Trident) to move up into seventh, with Martins also managing to make progress.

Race winner Lorenzo Colombo,  Campos Racing

Race winner Lorenzo Colombo, Campos Racing

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ido Cohen retired after pitting with a mechanical issue, having had no visible damage to his Carlin-run car.

With ten laps to go, Colombo had cleared a significant gap between himself and Crawford of four seconds, up to 5.2s by lap seven.

The yellow flag was waved after HWA Racelab’s Rafael Villagomez ended up in the wall coming out of Les Combes, close to where Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc had his FP2-ending crash on Friday.

The track began to dry out by lap eight, with Collet attempting to pass Frederik Vesti but almost being caught out by the ART driver’s braking point.

Colombo had built up an incredible eight-second lead by lap 11, increasing it to 10s by lap 12, by using his visibility advantage to take a storming win.

Collet moved up to fourth after a tense battle with Jenzer’s Johnathan Hoggard, Schumacher, and Vesti, taking positions on the run-off and somehow keeping the car in the right direction.

But he was handed a five-second time penalty for gaining an advantage while off the track, dropping him down the order.

The battle left Vesti in fifth, with Martins in sixth, Hoggard in seventh and Schumacher back in ninth.

Vesti managed to pass Collet the following corner, with team-mates Novalak and Schumacher tussling for eighth.

Feature race polesitter Jack Doohan will also start front of the grid for this afternoon’s reverse grid race, with Schumacher in second and Smolyar in third.

Collet will start fourth, with Sargeant in fifth and Novalak in sixth.

Race 1 results - 15 laps

Cla Driver Team Time Gap
1 Italy Lorenzo Colombo Spain Campos Racing -  
2 Jak Crawford United Kingdom HitechGP 13.400 13.400
3 Czech Republic Roman Staněk United Kingdom HitechGP 15.400 15.400
4 Denmark Frederik Vesti France ART Grand Prix 19.000 19.000
5 France Victor Martins Netherlands MP Motorsport 21.100 21.100
6 United Kingdom Johnathan Hoggard Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 23.600 23.600
7 United Kingdom Clement Novalak Italy Trident 24.400 24.400
8 United States Logan Sargeant Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 24.500 24.500
9 Caio Collet Netherlands MP Motorsport 25.200 25.200
10 Russian Federation Alexander Smolyar France ART Grand Prix 25.400 25.400
11 Germany David Schumacher Italy Trident 25.900 25.900
12 Australia Jack Doohan Italy Trident 26.900 26.900
13 Arthur Leclerc Italy Prema Powerteam 28.300 28.300
14 Norway Dennis Hauger Italy Prema Powerteam 30.000 30.000
15 Ayumu Iwasa United Kingdom HitechGP 31.400 31.400
16 United Kingdom Olli Caldwell Italy Prema Powerteam 44.300 44.300
17 Amaury Cordeel Spain Campos Racing 46.400 46.400
18 Hunter Yeany Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 50.700 50.700
19 Italy Matteo Nannini Germany HWA AG 53.400 53.400
20 Oliver Rasmussen Germany HWA AG 57.000 57.000
21 United Kingdom Jonny Edgar United Kingdom Carlin 57.600 57.600
22 United States Juan Manuel Correa France ART Grand Prix 58.400 58.400
23 Tijmen van Netherlands MP Motorsport 59.100 59.100
24 Australia Calan Williams Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 1'00.600 1'00.600
25 László Tóth Spain Campos Racing 1'04.800 1'04.800
26 Zdenek Chovanec Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 1'08.400 1'08.400
27 Rafael Villagómez Germany HWA AG 2'12.600 2'12.600
  Filip Ugran Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 1 lap  
  Ido Cohen United Kingdom Carlin 11 laps  

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