Williams junior Browning absorbs pressure to win and take championship lead

Luke Browning held the lead of the F3 feature race at the Red Bull Ring to take victory and the championship lead with it.

The Williams junior driver led every lap despite having rivals within DRS range for the majority of the race. He beat Gabriele Mini to the chequered flag with Dino Beganovic in third.

Pole winner Browning successfully held the lead when the lights went out at the start, leading Lindblad with Gabriele Mini in third. Mini challenged for second around the outside of turn four but was rebuffed, which allowed Dino Beganovic to get by Mini into third before he passed his second Prema team mate into turn three on lap two to move up into second.

Browning became the head of a long DRS train covering the top 15 cars but kept ahead of Beganovic without allowing the Ferrari junior to get close enough to challenge him for the lead. There was a brief Virtual Safety Car period when Nikita Bedrin was hit by Mari Boya at turn three back in the pack, before Oliver Goethe and Noel Leon made contact out of turn four while battling for fifth, resulting in Leon sliding off track with a right-rear puncture.

Beganovic eventually began to put Browning under pressure with around ten laps remaining, but even with lap after lap of DRS could not get close enough to have a look for the lead. As the laps ticked down, Beganovic became under greater pressure from Mini behind than he was able to put Browning under.

By the penultimate lap, Browning had managed to escape out of DRS range of Beganovic behind. Mini passed his team mate around the outside of turn four to take second, but Beganovic fought back to reclaim the position on the final lap at turn three. However, Mini would ultimately prevail when he once again pulled off a move around the outside of turn four to retake second.

Browning completed the final lap to take the chequered flag by 1.6 seconds from Mini, with Beganovic taking the final podium position in third. Christian Mansell climbed up to fourth to join the battle for the podium but eventually finished four tenths away, with Goethe finishing in fifth ahead of Nikol Tsolov.

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Lindblad faded over the race to finish seventh with Laurens van Hoepen in eighth and former championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli in ninth. McLaren junior Alexander Dunne claimed the final points position in tenth, with Sophia Floersch just four tenths of a second away from scoring from her first point of the season.

Browning claims the lead of the championship with his victory, moving onto 106 points, with Mini up to second ahead of former leader Fornaroli. The next Formula 3 round takes place next weekend at Silverstone as part of the British Grand Prix.

Formula 3 Austria race two results

Position	Car	Driver	Team
1	14	Luke Browning	Hitech
2	2	Gabriele Minì	Prema
3	1	Dino Beganovic	Prema
5	23	Christian Mansell	ART
5	10	Oliver Goethe	Campos
6	25	Nikola Tsolov	ART
7	3	Arvid Lindblad	Prema
8	24	Laurens Van Hoepen	ART
9	4	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident
10	9	Alex Dunne	MP
11	21	Sophia Floersch	Van Amersfoort
12	15	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech
13	6	Santiago Ramos	Trident
14	19	Matias Zagazeta	Jenzer
15	7	Tim Tramnitz	MP
16	8	Kacper Sztuka	MP
17	18	Max Esterson	Jenzer
18	12	Mari Boya	Campos
19	30	Piotr Wisnicki	Rodin
20	5	Sami Meguetounif	Trident
21	16	Cian Shields	Hitech
22	22	Tom Smith	Van Amersfoort
23	20	Noel Leon	Van Amersfoort
24	31	Joseph Loake	Rodin
25	29	Callum Voisin	Rodin
26	26	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	PHM
27	17	Charlie Wurz	Jenzer
DNF	27	Nikita Bedrin	PHM
DNF	28	Josh Dufek	PHM
DNF	11	Sebastian Montoya	Campos

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