PREMA claims top-5 finish in hectic race 1
PREMA Racing got a points finish in FIA Formula 3 race 1 at Hungaroring today as Ollie Bearman made into the top-5 at the end of a wet and eventful run.
Rain started to fall before the start and made it a tricky challenge, especially when the track soon started to dry out. The PREMA drivers had delivered a solid race until the very latest stages when Arthur Leclerc collided with team-mate Jak Crawford trying to battle for a potential podium position.
While the American recovered from the spin, it was too late for him to bounce back and he finished in P20. On the other hand, the Monegasque had some damage and dropped back to last place in P27.
At that point, Bearman, who had put up a splendid performance in his first experience at Hungaroring, was able to gain two spots handing himself and the team six valuable points. The 17-year-old Brit will start Race 2 from P3.
#4 - Arthur Leclerc
"I had a really good start but the weather was really hard to manage, difficult to get up to pace. However, starting from the middle of the race we had a really really good pace. We could come back through the field, but towards the end, I tried to overtake Jak in difficult conditions. From the car it was really hard to see that there was only one line, unfortunately, it was wet, I lost control and hit Jak. I apologize to him and the team. It was my mistake and I hope to recover from it tomorrow."
#5 - Jak Crawford
"It was definitely a fun race in the wet. We had really good speed and there was a lot of battling. There were a lot of safety cars and that meant a lot of battles on all the restarts, it was a really entertaining race from that point of view. I made my way back to P4, fell back to P6 but then went back to P4. I was fighting for a podium position on the last lap but an incident dropped me out of the points. It's not great that we lost the points, but it happens."
#6 - Ollie Bearman
"Good result in the end, P5, happy to take some points after not scoring many points in the sprint races. It's good to start the weekend with a good result. Overall, the race was very tough, there was a massive downpour before the start, then the track was drying super fast as it usually does when the sun breaks through the clouds. It was a difficult challenge but I'm happy to take P5 into the feature race."