Mini’s penalty hands Bahrain feature race win to Bortoleto

Formula 3

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Gabriel Bortoleto won the Formula 3 feature race in Bahrain despite crossing the line behind Gabriele Mini as the race finished behind the Safety Car.

The Hitech Grand Prix driver crossed the line in first but a five-second time penalty for a starting grid infringement by his team sent him to eighth.

Mini was on course to finish at least third before the Safety Car was deployed on the penultimate lap. However Tommy Smith’s late retirement meant the race had to be neutralised, the pack bunched up and Mini’s five-second penalty became more costly.

Oliver Goethe followed team mate Bortoleto home to secure a one-two for Trident. Dino Beganovic completed the feature race podium.

After Pepe Marti won on a partially reversed grid yesterday, the cars lined up to the order they finished in qualifying. Mini, who finished 20th in the sprint race, started from pole position.

However the Alpine junior driver made a poor start and lost the lead heading into turn one, Bortoleto lunging down the inside. Things soon got worse for Mini as Gregoire Saucy overtook him around the outside of turn seven on the opening lap for second.

The battle continued as Saucy and Mini engaged in a wheel-to-wheel scrap for the whole of lap three. The following lap, the pole winner regained second around the outside of turn four by using DRS down the straight.

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But this battle allowed Bartoleto to build a lead of up to 3.5 seconds. However he lost that advantage when the Safety Car was deployed on lap seven, as Mari Boya spun out of the race after hitting Smith at turn eight.

On the lap 10 restart, Mini regained the lead after overtaking Bortoleto through the quick bends of turn five and six. But around the same time word was given of his five-second penalty.

While Bortoleto stayed within a second of Mini for the following laps, there was a change for third place. On lap 15, Goethe overtook Saucy down the start-finish straight with the help of DRS.

Mini never pulled far enough ahead to overcome his five-second penalty. But his position became far worse on the penultimate lap when Smith and Roberto Faria tangled at turn one.

With Mini relegated to eighth, Bortoleto inherited the win ahead of Goethe and Beganovic and takes the early lead in the championship. Saucy finished fourth ahead of Luke Browning, Marti, Frederick and the luckless Mini. Sebastian Montoya and Paul Aron completed the top 10.

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Formula 3 Bahrain race two results

Position Car Driver Team
1 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Trident
2 6 Oliver Goethe Trident
3 2 Dino Beganovic Prema
4 8 Gregoire Saucy ART
5 16 Luke Browning Hitech
6 23 Pepe Martí Campos
7 7 Kaylen Frederick ART
8 15 Gabriele Minì Hitech
9 14 Sebastian Montoya Hitech
10 1 Paul Aron Prema
11 10 Franco Colapinto MP
12 3 Zak O’Sullivan Prema
13 24 Christian Mansell Campos
14 17 Caio Collet Van Amersfoort
15 9 Nikola Tsolov ART
16 27 Alexander Smolyar MP
17 26 Nikita Bedrin Jenzer
18 20 Oliver Gray Rodin Carlin
19 22 Ido Cohen Rodin Carlin
20 18 Rafael Villagomez Van Amersfoort
21 29 Sophia Floersch PHM Racing by Charouz
22 21 Hunter Yeany Rodin Carlin
23 12 Jonny Edgar MP
24 31 Piotr Wiśnicki PHM Racing by Charouz
25 30 Roberto Faria PHM Racing by Charouz
26 25 Hugh Barter Campos
27 4 Leonardo Fornaroli Trident
28 19 Tom Smith Van Amersfoort
29 28 Alejandro García Jenzer
30 11 Mari Boya MP

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Ed Hardy
In 2019, Ed started working on Formula 1 writing articles during race weekends. Alongside that, he also built up experience in football working on...

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3 comments on “Mini’s penalty hands Bahrain feature race win to Bortoleto”

  1. Bortoleto deserved the win, but Mini also deserved at least a podium, sad for him. But it’s only the first weekend, his pace is promissing. Bortoleto good run was expected in my opinion, he always had good pace in previous seasons and now he’s in a top team.

    1. I don’t see a thing Mini’s done wrong, he was in front of Bertoleto and he’s the one who deserved the win; at least speaking of the drivers and their efforts. It’s only his team that failed him. But I don’t see how Bertoleto deserves the win more, if he was behind…

  2. FiA could be more lenient in such a tight field to award a 2.5 sec penalty instead of full 5 sec like in F1. This is F3, they are bound to finish closer.

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