PREMA Racing wraps up 2021 F3 season at Sochi

PREMA Racing completed the 2021 FIA Formula 3 Championship with a tough race at Sochi. With lowly starting positions coming from a high-traffic qualifying session on Friday, race 3 was set to be challenging. Nonetheless, Arthur Leclerc put up a brilliant charge moving from P13 at the start all the way up to P7.

Olli Caldwell delivered an equally superb drive going from P15 on the grid, and a melee at the start, up to P10 and a points finish.

After the cancellation of race 2, it was never going to be easy to fight for the team title, which eventually slipped away. Driver Champion Dennis Hauger was caught in traffic in the opening stages while fighting for the top-5, and was eventually punted into a spin. 

As the focus switches towards the 2022 season, the team wants to congratulate Trident Motorsport on its highly competitive run this season.

#1 DENNIS HAUGER

“The start was not too bad but could not pass Correa which was sort of a locking point for me. I got in the wrong position while fighting with him, and he got past which was a bit frustrating. Then Rasmussen was locked behind him and I thought it wouldn’t be a problem to stay easily around the outside. Unfortunately, he locked up and got into the back of my car, which is a shame. However, nothing to do about it now. If we think about the season as a whole, it was a good and fun one, and I fully enjoyed it with the team. Shame we couldn’t get the team championship, it is what it is and we did what we could.”

Qualifying: P9

Starting Grid Race 1:  P4

Starting Grid Race 3:  P9

Fastest lap: 1:54.826

Race 1:  P2

Race 3:  P24

#2 ARTHUR LECLERC

“I’m really disappointed about the team championship. I don’t think we lost everything this weekend, it was more the season that went a bit up and down especially for me. I have to work on consistency to score more points in every race. Today the speed was there. The start was not really good because I was on a damp patch on the grid, but then we recovered to P7. I gave everything to score as many points as possible, but it was not enough to take the championship.”

Qualifying: P14

Starting Grid Race 1:  P14

Starting Grid Race 3:  P14

Fastest lap: 1:55.089

Race 1:  P7

Race 3:  P7

#3 OLLI CALDWELL

“It hasn’t been the best way to finish the year, but I had some fun in race 3 anyway. I dropped back to P18 but came through back to P10 so  at least we did some overtaking. It’s disappointing, with the issues we had in the second half of the season we went from fighting for the top two or three in the championship to fighting for the top-10. The issues were out of my hands, but at least I had fun in the last few races.”

Qualifying: P15

Starting Grid Race 1:  P15

Starting Grid Race 3:  P15

Fastest lap: 1:55.151

Race 1:  P17

Race 3:  P10

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing