Sharp ninth in Barcelona FIA F3 Sprint Race

Kiwi driver Louis Sharp has finished ninth in the FIA Formula 3 Championship Sprint Race at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in Spain.

“Good Sprint Race for me coming from a difficult qualifying session,” commented Sharp. “I had a good recovery from P15 to P9. The team did a great job and we had a fast car, which is really promising.

“I made good overtakes and managed the race well to come through the field nicely. I’m looking forward to the Feature Race tomorrow.

“I will need to be more decisive and with the longer race a little bit more tyre management will be needed. I’m really happy with the race.”

His teammate James Wharton claimed victory holding off Freddie Slater to come out on top. Starting in second, the Australian driver took the lead early on and managed two Safety Car restarts before going on to win. Slater followed him across the line in P2 for TRIDENT with DAMS Lucas Oil’s Gerrard Xie in third.

Of note was a high number of drivers with post-race penalties.

Maciej Gladysz (ART Grand Prix), Matteo De Palo (TRIDENT ), Christian Ho (Rodin Motorsport) were all handed 20-second time penalties for being out of position for the race start.

Ugo Ugochukwu retains the lead of the Drivers’ Championship but is now tied on 43 points with Freddie Slater. Bruno del Pino is third with 40 points, ahead of Brando Badoer in fourth on 28, as Théophile Nael rounds out the top five on 25.

In the Teams’ Standings, Campos Racing continue to lead the way with 78 points, ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing on 62. TRIDENT are third with 53 points, with Rodin Motorsport fourth with 44. ART Grand Prix round out the top five with 31 points.

FIA Formula 3 – Barcelona – Provisional Classification – Sprint Race
DRIVER LICENCE TEAM
1 James Wharton AUS PREMA Racing
2 Freddie Slater GBR TRIDENT
3 Gerrard Xie CHN DAMS Lucas Oil
4 Tuukka Taponen FIN MP Motorsport
5 Enzo Deligny FRA Van Amersfoort Racing
6 Bruno Del Pino ESP Van Amersfoort Racing
7 Hiyu Yamakoshi JPN Van Amersfoort Racing
8 Theophile Nael FRA Campos Racing
9 Louis Sharp NZL PREMA Racing
10 Noah Stromsted DEN TRIDENT
11 Alessandro Giusti FRA MP Motorsport
12 Maciej Gladysz POL ART Grand Prix
13 Pedro Clerot BRA Rodin Motorsport
14 Kanato Le JPN ART Grand Prix
15 Taito Kato JPN ART Grand Prix
16 Nicola Lacorte ITA DAMS Lucas Oil
17 Fernando Barrichello BRA AIX Racing
18 Jin Nakamura JPN Hitech
19 Yevan David SRI AIX Racing
20 Brando Badoer ITA Rodin Motorsport
21 Fionn Mclaughlin IRL Hitech
22 Woohyun Shin KOR Hitech
23 Ricardo Escotto MEX AIX Racing
24 Matteo De Palo ITA TRIDENT
25 Christian Ho SGP Rodin Motorsport
26 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi THA DAMS Lucas Oil
27 Jose Garfias MEX PREMA Racing