The first European race of the Formula 3 season took the MP team to Imola. After an instructive round in Melbourne, our drivers were looking to continue their growth on a more familiar track in Europe. Due to two red flags during the Practice Session, there wasn’t a lot of ground to be covered to learn more about the track. The corresponding results were in line with the chaotic session, with Alex finishing at P17, Kacper at P24, and Tim at P25.
Qualifying
The difference between Practice and Qualifying was night and day. Alex got his best qualifying result yet in F3 by finishing at P5. Due to lap times being deleted, Tim entered the top ten by finishing tenth, Kacper got the reverse pole position during the Sprint Race after being promoted to P12! Unfortunately, Alex was disqualified from the qualifying session, it was ruled that Car #9 was in breach of Article 1.4 of the Technical Regulations relating to a non-conformity with the front anti-roll bar links.
Sprint Race
The Sprint Race of the weekend can be marked by one thing: safety cars. It was deployed a total of four times, thankfully not due to big crashes. This meant that the MP drivers were able to either maintain their position well or gain many, last mentioned by Alex. He overtook a total of sixteen positions! Kacper unfortunately didn’t hold pole position, but did finish at P5 which is a great result for the young Polishman. Tim, who finished in third position, was promoted to P2 after post-race penalties! This meant his best result until now.
Feature Race
During the Feature Race, Alex repeated the same trick he pulled off a day earlier. The newly announced McLaren Development driver gained a total of eleven positions by finishing sixteenth in the overall grid. Kacper drove a clean race but lost a couple of positions compared to the starting grid, P15 for him. Tim was hit with a few clashes by being pushed wide or off the track, which led to him finishing just outside point territory.
Lots to take away from last weekend. The focus is already on the race weekend as it is just a few days away. On the 23rd of May, the F3 team is travelling to Monaco for the fourth round of the season!
The standings after the Imola GP:
P8 Tim – 30 points
P18 Kacper – 6 points
P19 Alex – 6 points
Team standings:
P6 – 42 points
Follow us: