F3 Bahrain: Williams junior Browning takes maiden win in feature race

Browning got his F3 season off to the best of starts, leading from start to finish to take the full 25 points after absorbing pressure from Christian Mansell throughout.

Beganovic’s miserable start to the season continued as his Prema-run car failed to launch from pole position and dropped him to the back of the field, adding to the pain of a scoreless sprint due to a lap one puncture.

As the Swedish driver lost ground, Browning could head into the first corner with an unchallenged lead. Making the most of this, the Hitech driver quickly pulled clear of DRS range as the chasing pack engaged in a fierce battle.

Beganovic eventually recovered to P13 but left Bahrain without a point to his name.

Another driver who endured a difficult start was Campos driver Mari Boya, who suffered a puncture in an incident involving team-mate ART driver Laurens van Hoepen. Compounding this misery, the Spaniard was then handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

The early beneficiaries of these problems were Sami Meguetounif (Trident) and Christian Mansell (ART), with the drivers who had started fourth and fifth respectively climbing to second and third.

These positions switched in Mansell’s favour on lap five, as both drivers locked up into Turn 10 and the Australian quite literally slid down the inside.

As drivers settled into the race, Browning saw his lead erode and by lap 10, he led a DRS train of 11 cars, with his margin to Mansell just half a second.

Lap 17 saw gaps begin to appear with the top four pulling two seconds clear of the chasing pack. This came after concern from Browning after his engine tone changed significantly, something which was initially feared to be a lost engine cylinder.

However, it transpired that a broken piece of heat shielding was to blame for the change, and not anything more sinister.

With five laps of the 22 remaining, Browning began to push once again but he was unable to shake Mansell from his gearbox. This push split the lead group into two packs, with Meguetounif and Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport) dropping back.

Keen to fire fresh life into his own push for the race win, Tramnitz dove to the inside at Turn 1, taking the final podium position from his Trident rival.

But there was no grandstand finale, as Browning cruised to the chequered flag from Mansell and Tramnitz.

1  –  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight	14		22	–
2	C. Mansell ART Grand Prix	23		22	+1.200 1.2	1.200
3	T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport	7		22	+2.400 2.4	1.200
4	S. Meguetounif Trident	5		22	+5.600 5.6	3.200
5	S. Ramos Trident	6		22	+6.900 6.9	1.300
6	G. Minì Prema Powerteam	2		22	+8.200 8.2	1.300
7	L. Fornaroli Trident	4		22	+8.800 8.8	0.600
8	A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam	3		22	+9.500 9.5	0.700
9	A. Dunne MP Motorsport	9		22	+16.600 16.6	7.100
10	O. Goethe Campos Racing	10		22	+17.000 17.0	0.400
11	N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix	25		22	+18.000 18.0	1.000
12	N. León Van Amersfoort Racing	20		22	+19.400 19.4	1.400
13	D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam	1		22	+20.000 20.0	0.600
14	M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight	15		22	+21.700 21.7	1.700
15	L. Van ART Grand Prix	24		22	+22.600 22.6	0.900
16	C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport	17		22	+23.100 23.1	0.500
17	S. Montoya Campos Racing	11		22	+23.600 23.6	0.500
18	N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing	27		22	+29.900 29.9	6.300
19	M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport	19		22	+30.800 30.8	0.900
20	T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing	26		22	+34.400 34.4	3.600
21	C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport	29		22	+35.800 35.8	1.400
22	T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing	22		22	+37.400 37.4	1.600
23	J. Loake Rodin Motorsport	31		22	+41.100 41.1	3.700
24	M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport	18		22	+42.300 42.3	1.200
25	P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport	30		22	+52.300 52.3	10.000
26	C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight	16		22	+53.900 53.9	1.600
27	J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing	28		22	+59.900 59.9	6.000
28	K. Sztuka MP Motorsport	8		22	+1’03.800 1’03.8	3.900
29	M. Boya Campos Racing	12		22	+1’28.200 1’28.2	24.400
dnf	S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing	21		21	1 lap					Retirement
View full results

Sprint race winner Arvid Lindblad added further points to his early haul, finishing eighth.