Mini’s penalty hands Bahrain feature race win to Bortoleto

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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