Red Bull junior driver Arvid Lindblad thrust himself into the fight for the Formula 3 title by dominating the delayed Silverstone sprint race.
Lindblad won the race to the first corner at the start and never looked back, winning by over six seconds ahead of Noel Leon. Matias Zagazeta secured his first podium in F3 in third.
Championship leader Luke Browning failed to score points following a mid-race crash with Tim Tramnitz following a Safety Car restart.
Continuous rain overnight and into the morning at Silverstone left the track too wet for the sprint race to begin as originally scheduled at 9:20am on Saturday morning. As a result, race control postponed the race until after F1’s qualifying session.
When the lights went out, Arvid Lindblad, Matias Zagazeta and reverse grid pole-winner Noel Leon charged three-wise into Abbey. Lindblad took the lead with Zagazeta moving up to second and demoting Leon to third. As Lindblad pulled out a second over Zagazeta behind over the opening lap, Leon overtook Zagazeta to move back up into second place.
The Safety Car was deployed after a high-speed collision between Max Esterson and Oliver Goethe into Copse on the fifth lap which sent both drivers skidding into the tyre barriers. Thankfully both drivers climbed out of their cars under their own power, seemingly unhurt in the accident.
The race restarted at the beginning of lap eight, with Lindblad leading the field away from Leon and Zagazeta. Entering The Loop at the restart, Browning was hit by Tim Tramnitz, causing a left-front puncture for the Williams junior driver and breaking Tramnitz’s front wing. Both drivers recovered to the pit lane and rejoined, albeit a lap down.
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Lindblad remained untroubled out front, gradually stretching out his lead over Leon behind. There was drama when McLaren junior Alexander Dunne and Charlie Wurz made contact down the Wellington Straight, sending Wurz sliding sideways along the track and into retirement, which prompted a Virtual Safety Car period.
But nothing troubled Lindblad who continue to grow his lead after the race went green again. The Red Bull junior took the chequered flag to claim his second win of the season, 6.5s ahead of Leon. Zagazeta held onto third to claim his first points in the championship and his first podium.
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