PREMA, Lindblad take Sprint Race victory
Arvid Lindblad secured his third win of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 season today at Silverstone as the series got underway with Race 1 at the British Grand Prix venue. Initially scheduled for the early morning, the race was postponed by several hours due to torrential rain that made it impossible to compete safely.
With much better conditions - sunny skies and dry weather - the PREMA Racing drivers delivered remarkable performances. Lindblad took off from the front row and assumed the lead with a spectacular three-wide maneuver in turn 1. He never looked back again, despite two Virtual Safety Cars and a Safety Car situation, and ended up with a comfortable margin on the second-placed car. He also made crucial gains in terms of the Driver Championship.
Gabriele Minì was also able to trim his gap to the front of the standings. Starting from P12, he quickly gained spots in the beginning and then stayed in the mix throughout the middle stages. As the laps winded down, he was able to battle for the top 5, eventually claiming valuable points for his championship chase. He is now only six points away from the lead.
Dino Beganovic started from P19 and also fought back right away, although having to avoid an incident cost him valuable time on lap 1. The Swede progressively improved his position throughout the 18-lap distance to capture P12 as one of the race's biggest movers.
Today's results enabled PREMA Racing to further solidify its Team Championship lead heading into Sunday's early-morning Race 2.
#1 - Dino Beganoivc
"I had a good start off the line, but I had to avoid a crash in turn 1, going off the track and losing positions. From there, we tried to recover as much as we could, still not enough for points, but we also had a lot more tyre degradation than expected. We have to see how to handle it for tomorrow so we can have a better race and a better balance."
#2 - Gabriele Minì
"We got the start we wanted as we gained five places straight away in the opening corners, which is really good. At that point, it was about trying to maintain that or gain a few more spots. Unfortunately, we were struggling quite a bit, especially in the first laps, but when the degradation kicked in we kind of leveled up with the others and could stay again with them. In the end, we stayed there and tried to use mistakes and penalties to gain as many points as possible."
#3 - Arvid Lindblad
"Really happy with the race today. Super happy to win at home. Starting from P2, I knew we had a great opportunity for a strong result. Thank you to the team for the great car, and we look at tomorrow to try and score as many points as we can there.”