F3 2022 Bahrain Sprint Race: Isack Hadjar wins after post-race penalty

Hitech’s Isack Hadjar secured the first Sprint Race win of the Formula 3 season, at the Bahrain International Circuit, after Prema’s Oliver Bearman gets a five-second time penalty.

How the race unfolded…

Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan took pole position, after the grid was reversed around from P12, lined up alongside Bearman in P2.

O’Sullivan made a steady getaway from pole position and tried to defend his position against Bearman. Fortunately, the Carlin driver managed to maintain his position into the first corner. However, Trident’s Roman Stanek had trouble after he picked up a puncture amongst the first lap melee.

The top two drivers, O’Sullivan and Bearman, started to pull away from the pack at the beginning of the second lap. However, third place was under pressure after Hadjar stole the position from Campos’ David Vidales, into the final corner.

Due to the slipstream, Vidales managed to regain his third place. As a result, Hadjar became a sitting duck and fell down to fifth after fourth place, Trident, Zane Maloney picked up the scraps.

On the exit of turn four, on the fifth lap, Bearman managed to steal the lead of the race from O’Sullivan before the two drivers ventured into the slower, technical corners of six and seven.

While the top two remained unchanged, Bearman made progress to establish a gap between himself and O’Sullivan. However, the Carlin driver – who started on pole – fell into the clutches of Maloney and Hadjar.

Fortunately, O’Sullivan managed to maintain his second-place position into the first corner, on lap 15, but Maloney and Hadjar managed to overtake the Carlin into turn four, on the same lap.

A lap later, Hadjar – who looked quick – managed to overtake Maloney into the first corner to steal second place from the Trident driver. However, four seconds still remained between Hadjar and Bearman with a handful of laps to go.

Maloney soon came under pressure on the 18th lap as he fell to fourth after MP Motorsport’s Alexander Smolyar took P3 into the first corner. Despite the benefit of DRS, Maloney couldn’t find the performance to regain his lost position.

While Bearman took the chequered flag first, the Prema driver was given a five-second time penalty after the race for track limits – demoting the driver down to P2.

That’s it for the article: ‘F3 2022 Bahrain Sprint Race: Isack Hadjar wins after post-race penalty.’ What a dramatic end! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.