Spanish GP: Marti dominates lights to flag F3 feature race win

Campos’ Josep Maria Marti controlled the race from lights to flag in a dominating feature race performance as Jenzer Motorsport’s Taylor Barnard fell down the order.

How the race unfolded…

It was a great launch off the line from the Spanish polesitter, Marti who immediately dove to the right hand side to cover off Barnard. While Marti led into the first corner, the Campos driver forced Barnard to yield onto the run-off area at turn one.

As the Jenzer driver returned to the circuit at turn three, Barnard found himself in an immediate wheel-to-wheel battle with Marti once again. In the end, Marti won the initial battle to maintain the lead of the race, ahead of Barnard and MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto.

As the pack raced around turn four, Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli made contact with Luke Browning’s Hitech which unsettled the car. The two drivers quickly ventured over the gravel trap before they returned to the circuit. While Fornarli was able to continue on, Browning was forced to retire from the race on the entry to turn five with a rear-left puncture and suspension damage.

Fornarli later retired, near the end of the race.

The safety car was deployed on lap two to allow the track marshals to extract the stranded Hitech. The safety car returned to the pit lane at the end of lap six, and Marti got the race back underway as he bolted back up to racing speed on the exit of turn 12.

On lap 10, Hunter Yeany was seen stopped at the side of the track on the exit of turn two as the Carlin made contact with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez into turn two. Both Yeany and Villagomez were able to continue on but Yeany soon returned to the pit lane with suspension damage.

The top three saw a change as Colapinto utilised his drag reduction system to slip by Barnard with ease for second place, on lap 11. A lap later, Barnard slipped down to fourth place as Prema’s Dino Beganovic overtook the Jenzer with DRS into turn one.

Barnard’s day went from bad to worse after he was overtaken by Trident’s Gabriel Bortoleto into turn one which demoted the Jenzer down to fourth place, on lap 17. On the same lap, Prema’s Paul Aron picked off Barnard for fifth into turn five.

At the end of the 17th lap, Barnard ran wide on the exit of the final corner which made him a sitting duck down the main straight, he was soon overtaken by both MP Motorsport’s Mari Boya and Hitech’s Sebastian Montoya who demoted him to eighth.

However, Barnard was able to fight back with Montoya to maintain seventh place but this just delayed the inevitable as Montoya finally resecured eighth place down the main straight on lap 22.

Despite the threat from Barnard at the start of the race, Marti opened up the final lap with a four-second gap over, second-placed, Colapinto who – in turn – had six seconds in hand over Beganovic in third.

Podium:

1. Josep Maria Marti, Campos
2. Franco Colapinto, MP Motorsport
3. Dino Beganovic, Prema

That’s it for the article: Spanish GP: Marti dominates lights to flag F3 feature race win!

Read more F3 here

• F3 Bahrain Sprint: Marti secures first win of 2023 in season opener
• F3 Bahrain: Bortoleto fastest in first practice of 2023 season
• Dams confirm Arthur Leclerc to join 2023 F2 grid
• 2023 Dutch Feature Race: Maloney takes back-to-back win in Zandvoort
• F3 Dutch Sprint: Collet secures victory after early move on Correa
• F3 Dutch GP: Maloney secures pole as Alatalo causes late red flag

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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.