Hadjar pounces on Martins to claim sprint race win

Formula 3

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Isack Hadjar has won the Formula 3 sprint race at Silverstone, having laid in wait until the penultimate lap to pass early leader Victor Martins.

Reece Ushijima had taken pole position on the partially-reversed grid, ahead of championship leader Martins. The original start was aborted when Brad Benavides slowed on the circuit, the Carlin driver eventually pulling into the pits.

The race started the second time and Martins took the lead off the line, almost immediately drawing out several car lengths over Ushijima and Kush Maini, the pair battling for second position on the opening lap.

Ushijima broke away and by lap six was challenging Martins for the lead. But the desperately defending Martins forced Ushijima wide at Stowe, after which he lost touch with the leader.

By lap eight Isack Hadjar had managed to get close to Ushijima, attempting an unsuccessful pass around Copse before making the move stick through Stowe, immediately pulling away.

Laszlo Toth and Zdenek Chovanec collided on lap 10, with Chovanec coming out the worse of the two Charouz team mates. He was unable to keep going to the pits, so the Safety Car was deployed.

The race resumed on lap 13 with Martins narrowly keeping the lead from Hadjar. But his lead had been slashed and Hadjar was consistently within his DRS range.

By lap 15 Hadjar was even closer, within three tenths of Martins but not quite able to pass yet. An error by Martins saw him run wide ahead of the Hangar Straight but Hadjar fell just short of taking advantage of the mistake.

However, the gap had now closed enough that on lap 16 Hadjar managed to replicate his move on Ushijima through Stowe, claiming the lead on the penultimate tour. Hadjar was the first to see the chequered flag, with Martins holding on to second and Ushijima third.

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Formula 3 Great Britain race one results

PositionCarDriverTeam
118Isack HadjarHitech
27Victor MartinsART
331Reece UshijimaHWA
412Kush MainiMP
517Kaylen FrederickHitech
62Roman StanekTrident
73Zane MaloneyTrident
84Arthur LeclercPrema
96Oliver BearmanPrema
105Jak CrawfordPrema
1110Caio ColletMP
1220David VidalesCampos
1329Franco ColapintoHWA
1426Zak O’SullivanCarlin
151Jonny EdgarTrident
1621Hunter YeanyCampos
1723Ido CohenJenzer
188Gregoire SaucyART
1925William AlataloJenzer
2022Pepe MartiCampos
219Juan Manuel CorreaART
2219Nazim AzmanHitech
2330Rafael VillagomezHWA
2411Filip-Ioan UgranMP
2516Francesco PizziCharouz
2624Federico MalvestitiJenzer
2728Enzo TrulliCarlin
2827Brad BenavidesCarlin
2914Laszlo TothCharouz
3015Zdenek ChovanecCharouz

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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3 comments on “Hadjar pounces on Martins to claim sprint race win”

  1. The boy’s a star. Rookies schooling sophomores, you love to see it.

    Finally some good Red Bull Hitech news after the entire Vips debacle from the last few days.

    1. Also @hazelsouthwell, Vidales and Edgar’s names seem to feature twice on the finishing order list.

    2. Hadjar was already one of the fastest driver in FRECA but lacked consistency (pretty usual for a rookie).
      He’s still really fast in F3 and seems to learn fast. If he keeps improving, he might have a really great career in motorsport. Also, he sounds like a really good kid, so that’s a plus.

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