Collet strides to wet sprint race win as Leclerc hits team mate on final lap

Formula 3

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Caio Collet won a wet Formula 3 sprint race at the Hungaroring from fourth on the grid while Arthur Leclerc collided with his team mate on the final lap.

Oliver Goethe, making his debut in Formula 3, led the field away on a rolling start due to the wet conditions at the track. However the debutant, who claimed pole on the partially-reversed-grid but was involved in an incident with Josep Maria Marti on the reconnaissance lap, swiftly fell into the clutches of his rivals.

Goethe was relegated to fourth, the lead falling into the hands of Colapinto, before the race was rapidly re-neutralised. David Vidales had crashed at turn three, prompting the safety car to come out again while his car was retrieved.

The race restarted on lap four, with Colapinto holding onto the lead from Caio Collet and Isack Hadjar. Goethe dropped more places on the restart, falling further down the order to seventh.

On lap six the Safety Car reappeared after Ido Cohen attempted to brake ambitiously late while driving up the inside of turn one. He collided with Brad Benavides and the Carlin came to a stop in the run-off.

The safety car ended on lap seven, with Collet immediately challenging Colapinto for the lead, attempting to go up the inside of the final corner. Hadjar became involved by the start of lap eight and he and Collet swapped places repeatedly.

For a few laps, Collet dropped back by almost a second from Colapinto. However by lap 10 he had worked his way back to contention and made the pass up the inside of turn one work and took the lead.

Collet put in two subsequent fast laps to draw out a more than two-and-a-half second lead on Colapinto by lap 12 and continued to draw away from his pursuers as the track dried.

On lap 16 Hadjar lost his grip on the podium. He went off at turn two, letting Kush Maini and Jak Crawford by. However he recovered to fourth by the end of the race.

On the final lap Arthur Leclerc threw his car down the inside of team mate Crawford at turn 12. Crawford was sent into a spin, and while Leclerc limped on with broken suspension, he was then knocked wide by Victor Martins at the penultimate corner.

Collet took the chequered flag by a huge margin of over eight seconds, Colapinto and Maini following him. Despite his setback, Hadjar narrowly takes the lead of the championship from Martins ahead of tomorrow’s feature race.

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Formula 3 Hungary race one results

Position Car Driver Team
1 10 Caio Collet MP
2 29 Franco Colapinto HWA
3 12 Kush Maini MP
4 18 Isack Hadjar Hitech
5 6 Oliver Bearman Prema
6 7 Victor Martins ART
7 8 Gregoire Saucy ART
8 21 Oliver Goethe Campos
9 2 Roman Stanek Trident
10 3 Zane Maloney Trident
11 31 Reece Ushijima HWA
12 9 Juan Manuel Correa ART
13 1 Jonny Edgar Trident
14 22 Pepe Marti Campos
15 11 Alexander Smolyar MP
16 25 Alexander Smolyar MP
17 30 Rafael Villagomez HWA
18 26 Zak O’Sullivan Carlin
19 17 Kaylen Frederick Hitech
20 5 Jak Crawford Prema
21 16 Francesco Pizzi Charouz
22 15 Christian Mansell Charouz
23 19 Nazim Azman Hitech
24 28 Enzo Trulli Carlin
25 24 Federico Malvestiti Jenzer
26 14 Laszlo Toth Charouz
27 4 Arthur Leclerc Prema
28 23 Ido Cohen Jenzer
29 27 Brad Benavides Carlin
30 20 David Vidales Campos

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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