PREMA delivers three points finishes to cap off Imola weekend
PREMA Racing secured three points finishes in Race 2 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship at Imola. Coming from a heavily-disrupted first race, the situation was much smoother today, which meant that tyre saving and management became critical over the all-green 22 laps.
Dino Beganovic maximized his potential to take fifth place, making the most out of every opportunity and avoiding mistakes to lead an all-PREMA train. Gabriele Minì had a tough start with his car’s anti-stall system briefly slowing his car at the start. The Italian showed pace and put together a spectacular recovery from outside the top 10 to finish in P6. Minì and Beganovic are currently tied for third place in points, not far away from the lead.
Starting from P4 after a brilliant qualifying, Arvid Lindblad suffered from tyre concerns in the middle part of the race but still put up an impressive pace as a rookie in the series. Lindblad bounced back to finish in P7.
With PREMA still in the lead of the Team Championship, its trio is set for a classic trip to Monte Carlo for next weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.
#1 DINO BEGANOVIC
"P5 in the feature is not what we wanted from yesterday, and coming into the weekend. I never really had a good feeling with the car this weekend, and I struggled with the balance today. I tried to save in the beginning, but we still didn't have the pace in the end and just maximized what we had. However, if this is a bad weekend with P4 and P5, it's still fine as a damage limitation. We can work on those aspects, look at the data, and come back."
#2 GABRIELE MINÌ
"A bit of a disappointing Feature Race. I got the anti-stall at the start, I don't know what happened yet as I kept everything as usual. What is really positive is the pace, which was great. We made many overtakes and we were fast even at the end, when I was catching the guys up front. It's a bit of a shame as it feels like it's a waste of points, but we still manage to get something. There are some positives and negatives, we will try to work on the negatives and get better for the next race weekend."
#3 ARVID LINDBLAD
"A bit of a difficult race today. I had a decent start, and I managed to hold onto fourth. I tried to save, staying in the group, but I didn't quite have the pace. I should have probably dropped back a little earlier because I started to deg a little earlier than those around me. In the middle part of the race, I was suffering from some graining, losing quite a few places. I tried to fight and hold onto the position, but I couldn’t quite do it. I came back strong in the last 8 to 10 laps as we started to clean the graining, but it was too little too late. Still, there are things we can learn and overall, it has been a positive weekend. We look forward to Monaco next weekend."