Alpine Junior Driver Nikola Tsolov claimed another FIA Formula 3 victory after the 21-lap Sprint Race around the Red Bull Ring, with Martinius Stenshorne and Christian Mansell rounding up the podium places.
As soon as the red lights went out for the start, Mansell managed to sweep polesitter Stenshorne into Turn 1, with Tsolov also passing him into the outside of Turn 6 to complete a provisional ART one-two.
Kacper Sztuka made contact with Charlie Wurtz after being engaged into a three-way side by side while Dino Beganovic spun on his own as he lost the rear into Turn 1, with Gabriele Mini successfully avoiding him.
The Prema driver was ultimately able to continue but lost several positions, dropping to 25th.
These incidents summoned the first safety car of the session.
The green flags were waved briefly after, on Lap 5, with both ART drivers successfully holding their positions for the first lap of the restart.
Meanwhile, further back in the pack, Luke Browning, starting from P15 following a 3-place grid drop after getting the fastest time in qualifying managed a double move past Arvid Lindblad and Nikita Bedrin at Turn 4 to move up into 11th.
Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli tried to move past Campos driver Mari Boya on the outside of Turn 3, going off-track but ultimately getting the move done.
Meanwhile, Tsolov repeated his move around the outside, this time into Turn 4 and Turn 5 to take the lead from his ART teammate.
Browning kept moving forward as he got past Tim Tramnitz at the exit of Turn 3 for P10.
Alex Dunne, running into fourth, was under pressure from Sebastian Montoya as the Campos driver was getting closer and closer.
Montoya’s teammate Oliver Goethe was also looking to make a move on Laurens Van Hoepen for P6.
A bit further down in the pecking order, the third Campos car of Mari Boya, who started at the back of the field was also making several places, moving up to 15th.
The lead was unchanged as we reached Lap 14, but Mansell and Stenshorne were gaining on race leader Tsolov, unable to break the DRS effect.
One lap later, Mansell successfully sweeped Tsolov into Turn 3 but the Bulgarian driver re-gained the position only one corner later.
Mansell tried to get the move done again for the lead on the following lap, successfully getting ahead briefly before Tsolov re-took the lead again.
While every driver was making moves, getting advantage from the effect of tyre degradation, Montoya suffered a huge crash into Turn 4 while trying to move past Alex Dunne, finding the walls and coming to a halt in the middle of the track, summoning the second Safety Car of the race.
Before the Safety Car came out, during the battle for the lead, Tsolov managed to hold onto first, with Stenshorne taking advantage of the battle ahead to get past Mansell.
Lindblad, meanwhile, had to retire from the race after picking up a puncture while battling with a Trident car.
The Safety Car got in the pitlane with just one lap to go, but the top 10 ended up without changes, as the driver didn’t want to take too many risks.
Therefore, Tsolov got his second win for the season after the Sprint race win at Monaco, with Stenshorne and Mansell completing the podium.
Dunne, Van Hoepen, and Mini finished fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively with Goethe in seventh.
This was a massive result for ART Grand Prix, with their three cars among the top five of the race.
Tim Tramnitz, Noel Leon and Sami Meguetounif rounded up the top 10 for the Sprint.
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