PREMA Racing finally delivered its first win of the year in the FIA Formula 3 Championship race 2 at Silverstone. Starting from the front row, 21-year-old Arthur Leclerc secured P1 with a move on lap 6 and never looked back. The Ferrari Driver Academy racer also bounced back to championship contention after showing remarkable potential throughout the whole year and now stands in P2.
Fellow FDA member Ollie Bearman had an equally spectacular run. The British rookie put up an aggressive race. After surviving an early contact, Bearman set his sight on the podium, tracking the P3 car of Collet and eventually getting the nod on him. In the closing stages, he went for P2 with a last-lap assault that ended 0.05s short of completion. Hi still enjoyed a memorable trip to the podium on his home racetrack.
Jak Crawford finished in P6 after being involved on a long battle and losing position due to contact. The Red Bull Junior American was able to fight back in the final stages and even claimed the fastest lap of the race. Coming out of the weekend, he and Bearman are holding P5 and P6 in the driver ranking respectively, while PREMA retained its lead in the team classification.
#4 - Arthur Leclerc
“I’m really happy about the win, we gave everything. Finally a good weekend from beginning to end. We had a good qualy and started on the front row. It was a hard race to keep it in front, we had a lot of deg with the rears, I was struggling quite a lot with the tyres but in the end, we made it to P1. Now on to Austria.”
#5 - Jak Crawford
"It wasn't a great race for me, I struggled a bit at the beginning with the pace. Then I had a couple of battles and a contact where I lost three positions. After that, I was trying to make it up. By the end of the race, the balance came to me and I was a lot quicker, so I started to make some positions again, getting the fastest lap on my last lap. However, while there are some positives, it wasn't a great race."
#6 - Ollie Bearman
"It was a good race, I managed to make a good start, and gain some positions on the first lap, so I was already P4 by the first safety car. I was struggling a bit with the balance after the first restart, I was under pressure from Jak and eventually Hadjar. Then I could start to attack Collet after the second restart, I was much happier with the car, and I managed to keep the pace to the end after I passed him. I was super close to making it to P2 but didn't quite manage it. I'm still really happy with the podium in my home race."