World of Sport: Formula 3; F2; NASCAR Cup; Porsche Supercup
FIA FORMULA 3 RED BULL RING (AUT) 11-12 JULY
ROUND 2
Discretion proved to be the better part of valour for Theo Pourchaire at the Red Bull Ring. When the reigning German Formula 4 champion took the lead in the opening stages of the reversed-grid FIA Formula 3 contest last Sunday, not for a moment did it look as though he would stamp his authority on the race. Unable to break the tow, he remained at the mercy of DRS and his chasing rivals. But such caution would later earn him a place in the pages of junior single-seater history, after Liam Lawson and Jake Hughes collided in their dogged and thrilling battle for victory.
Finishing ninth on Saturday gave Pourchaire second on the grid for race two. A fine launch earned him a run up the inside of polesitter Hughes as they entered Turn 1, and it was sufficient to give the ART Grand Prix rookie the lead on his fourth F3 race start. But he never looked like pulling away from the pack, even more so as it didn’t take long for HWA Racelab veteran Hughes to find his momentum on the opening lap and try to muscle his way around the outside.
So when DRS came into play on lap three, it seemed inevitable that Pourchaire’s time out front would be short-lived, and so it proved. One tour later, with the overtaking aid, Hughes and Lawson swept by on the run to Turn 4 in what would prove to be the start of a breathless duel.
The pair dived ahead in the braking zone, but with Lawson on the inside line it was the Red Bull Junior who emerged in the lead thanks to his stunning double overtake. Here the tone was set, with Hughes retaliating a lap later at the same corner as the top four cars – Logan Sargeant bringing up the rear of the lead quartet for Prema Racing – streaked clear of the chasing field.
In his bid to become the first repeat winner of the delayed 2020 season after a Sunday triumph in the first round, Hitech GP driver Lawson fought again down the inside of the same corner on lap 11. Having seemingly bided his time behind Hughes, waiting for the opportune moment to pass and then unleash his superior pace, it looked as though the race had fallen in his favour.
Despite Lawson’s murmurs over team radio that the safety car – called when Sophia Florsch spun across the front of
Alex Smolyar and smeared her Campos Racing machine down the barrier – was circulating too slowly, a drop in tyre temperatures didn’t seem to hamper him. Instead, he aced the restart to keep Hughes comfortably at bay for the next two laps.
But when DRS came back into play, Hughes made a quick challenge into Turn 3 and nipped down the inside. Overzealous under braking, though, Hughes suffered a small lock-up, which was enough for Lawson to use his superior exit speed to run back past on the way to Turn 4.
It was clear that this was a two-horse race, but the ducking and diving seemed set to go down to the final lap. Hughes made his play three laps from home, again with DRS, to brave it around the outside of Turn 4. That forced Lawson to hug the inside line in his efforts to preserve the lead, but he kept it too tight. The car lightly tagged the kerb, which was enough to unsettle the rear, and the momentary loss of grip sent him wide and into the side of Hughes, who had “left him all the space in the world”. Both were out with terminal suspension damage.
With the safety car back in action for the remaining three laps, Pourchaire inherited a record-breaking victory at a circuit where he scored the first of four F4 wins last year.
The 16-year-old French driver became the youngest ever winner in FIA F3 or its GP3 predecessor, eclipsing current Jaguar Formula E pilot Mitch Evans by just four days.
Pourchaire had scored his first point of the season in the Saturday feature race, which was thoroughly dominated by Prema’s polesitter Frederik Vesti before the 11-lapper was rained off and half-points were awarded. Although he still sits a humble ninth in the points ahead of the next race in Hungary, Pourchaire is now in the spotlight.
Even by the current standards of junior formula racing, he has time on his side – Hughes is 10 years his senior. Should Pourchaire go on to find the pace to lead from the front, there’s a bright future for him.