O'Sullivan, PREMA score second win of 2023
British racer Zak O'Sullivan captured his and PREMA's second win of the year at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as the FIA Formula 3 Championship went underway with the Sprint Race at the Spanish venue. The Williams Racing Academy driver dominated from P1 on the reverse grid and kept his main competitor at bay several times during the 21-lap run featuring a double safety car situation.
Paul Aron posted a top-5 finish. The Estonian made a great start, moving up from P8 on the grid, and got up to fourth place. As he diced with one of his rivals for the position, Aron was involved in a bit of a melee in turn 1 so he dropped back one spot, but still secured great points finish.
Dino Beganovic had a much more disappointing run. Starting from P9, he dropped back a bit but was battling in the top 10 when minor contact with another car resulted in a puncture. With no control due to the loss of pressure, he ended up straight in a gravel trap and was forced to retire. The Swede is now looking forward to a smoother run starting from P4 in the feature race.
#1 PAUL ARON
"Solid race here in Barcelona. We had a very good start, we gained three positions and another one later on. Shame for the incident in turn 1, but we had a good race, brought home valuable points and maximized what we had."
#2 DINO BEGANOVIC
"We had a good beginning of the race. I was managing my tyres to have a go in the last couple of laps when the others were starting to struggle. Then it started to get a bit messy, so I took the opportunity to gain some places, but unfortunately, there was a contact between me and Saucy that punctured my rear right at the exit of T9, so my race was over. Before that, the pace was good, and I'm looking forward to the Feature Race tomorrow."
#3 ZAK O'SULLIVAN
"We finished P1 in the sprint race. Pretty good result and the pace was really strong. I managed to maintain the gap and hold off the car behind early on. Even at the end of the race, just before the safety car, the tyres kind of came back to me and I started to build a nice gap. It is an awesome result, now let's see if we can make some progress in the feature race!"