Dennis Hauger has one hand on the Formula 3 championship trophy after leading every lap from pole position in race three at Zandvoort.
The Prema driver extended his championship advantage to 43 points over Jack Doohan after pulling clear of Trident driver David Schumacher over the course of the 24-lap race.Schumacher was forced out of the race after being hit by Victor Martins in the closing stages. Another Trident pilot, Clement Novalak, inherited second place, with Alexander Smolyar taking third for ART.
When the lights went out, Hauger held off Schumacher to take the lead of the race, ahead of Martins. Doohan started fourth but was hit at the banked turn four by Jak Crawford, allowing Novalak and Smolyar to pass both.
Pre-race points leader Hauger was unable to drop the pursuing pack behind him in the early phase of the race. But second-placed Schumacher was under the most pressure from Martins behind, with the MP Motorsport driver using DRS to mount a challenge on the Trident ahead.
Schumacher successfully fended off Martins’ advances, allowing fourth-placed Novalak an opportunity to start putting Martins under pressure instead. Back in the pack, Caio Collet relieved Crawford of seventh place.
With Schumacher occupied with defending from Martins, Hauger began to pull away at the front, stretching his advantage to over four seconds. Juan Manuel Correa received a 10-second time penalty for forcing Matteo Nannini off the circuit at Tarzan, after locking up heavily while trying to dive past the HWA driver.
With only a handful of laps remaining, Martins in third was becoming increasingly anxious to pass Schumacher for second. Heading into the banked Hugenholtz corner with three laps left, Martins tried an ambitious lunge up the inside, but clipped the rear of Schumacher’s car, sending him into the barriers and out of the race.
As a furious Schumacher climbed out of the car, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, neutralising the race. Martins was immediately handed a 10-second time penalty for being clearly responsible for the collision.
Schumacher’s stricken car was recovered on the final lap and the race was resumed as the leader rounded turn 10. Hauger took the chequered flag to score his fourth victory of the season and extend his championship lead to 43 points heading into the final round in Russia.
Novalak finished five seconds behind in second place, with Smolyar took third place after Martins’ time penalty dropped him down to tenth. Doohan was fourth ahead of Collet, Logan Sargeant, and Crawford. Martins came in behind Frederick Vesti and Arthur Leclerc.
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Formula 3 Netherlands race three results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Dennis Hauger | Prema |
| 2 | 5 | Clement Novalak | Trident |
| 3 | 8 | Alexander Smolyar | ART |
| 4 | 4 | Jack Doohan | Trident |
| 5 | 18 | Caio Collet | MP |
| 6 | 29 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz |
| 7 | 10 | Jak Crawford | Hitech |
| 8 | 7 | Frederik Vesti | ART |
| 9 | 2 | Arthur Leclerc | Prema |
| 10 | 17 | Victor Martins | MP |
| 11 | 11 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech |
| 12 | 22 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos |
| 13 | 12 | Roman Stanek | Hitech |
| 14 | 3 | Olli Caldwell | Prema |
| 15 | 25 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin |
| 16 | 23 | Ido Cohen | Carlin |
| 17 | 21 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos |
| 18 | 26 | Calan Williams | Jenzer |
| 19 | 28 | Filip-Ioan Ugran | Jenzer |
| 20 | 27 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer |
| 21 | 24 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin |
| 22 | 30 | Hunter Yeany | Charouz |
| 23 | 9 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART |
| 24 | 31 | Zdenek Chovanec | Charouz |
| 25 | 20 | Laszlo Toth | Campos |
| 26 | 16 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA |
| 27 | 15 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA |
| 28 | 19 | Tijmen van der Helm | MP |
| 29 | 14 | Matteo Nannini | HWA |
| 30 | 6 | David Schumacher | Trident |
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Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
5th September 2021, 11:08
Perfect job by Hauger! He dominated the race from the front and set the fastest lap. You can’t ask for more.
What a stupid move from Martins! Not only did he ruin his own race and his championship campaign, but it also cost David Schumacher a deserved 2nd place.
Correa wasn’t any better. In fact, he was even worse, pushing a rival off the track twice. That’s not good racing behaviour and the penalty was fully justified.
Jockey Ewing
6th September 2021, 23:50
Interesting, so here one can have car number 1 before becoming a champion, but at this time the number and the champion met :) I have seen some of the F3 races at this season, he was good, and I would be suprised if he will not carry on doing like this if he gets to a good team at F2. Meanwhile at the current season it the champion of F2 (and other top runners of it) will not have an easy route to F1 again. Probably Indy should go eager to pick up those talents, as there are quite many ex F1 and F2 talents there, this maybe would increase the circulation of drivers between F1 and Indy, which would be interesting to see, and would bring some more prestigious battles. Imo the days when the circulation were bigger, and lower tiers were not almost exclusively feeder series were better in this aspect. For example it would be nice to allow the F2 champ to stay in the series if nowhere to go, and to see some veterans occasionally running F2 races. And having a larger field at F2 like here at F3. This all together would be more likely with lower or more sane cost levels. I have read Mr. Rencken’s article about the feeder series and their cost aspects, so imo those who are operating these series and made the cars did and doing well, and the high costs are cascading downwards because F1 is very expensive todays as well. Imo the only but very firm restricion should be a cost cap, with less restrictions and requirements on the development and reliability side. With stronger authorities and more frequently changing rules on the cars’ technical sepcifications side. Having a cost cap is not that bad, they could agree in a sane figure, and occasionally raise it to follow the inflation (and for example if other series are catching up too much on F1).