F3: Wharton takes lights-to-flag maiden Formula 3 victory in Spielberg Sprint

James Wharton put in a commanding performance to take a lights-to-flag victory in Saturday’s Spielberg Sprint Race, the ART Grand Prix rookie achieving his first FIA Formula 3 win.

The Australian pole-sitter made a superb getaway at the line to stay ahead of MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti, and held off the Williams Driver Academy talent’s attacks all race long.

Wharton then took advantage of a late Safety Car restart – caused by a collision between Charlie Wurz and Brando Badoer – to extend his lead in front before crossing the line to take the win.

Giusti finished in P2 to make it two podium finishes in a row, following his third place result in the Barcelona Feature Race.

PREMA Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu had crossed the line in third but a post-race 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage in a battle with Nikola Tsolov dropped him down to P16.

This promoted Tsolov to third, and the Red Bull Junior was followed by his Campos Racing teammates Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Mari Boya – the newly announced member of the Aston Martin Driver Academy.

MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz came through from P17 to finish sixth, with McLaren-backed Martinius Stenshorne ending up in seventh after starting in 15th for Hitech TGR.

Callum Voisin finished eighth for Rodin Motorsport, ahead of TRIDENT’s Rafael Câmara, with PREMA’s Noel León rounding out the points in P10.

That’s it from the Sprint Race but the drivers are set to return to the track at 08:00 local time on Sunday morning for the Feature Race, where Tsolov will line up on pole.

Until then, you can read a full report from today’s FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race from Spielberg on the website here.