Gabriele Minì posted a positive sixth-place finish in the opening race of the FIA Formula 3 Championship Spielberg event. The three PREMA drivers, who achieved top-5 results in qualifying, started from P8, P9, and P11 on the reverse grid in the middle of a hard-charging pack.

Minì held steady and made up three positions despite a late safety car situation that slowed down his efforts. The Italian capitalized on his pace and scored five points, getting closer to the lead of the Driver Championship.

Both his teammates faced unfortunate issues. Dino Beganovic spun at the exit of turn 2 and lost position, before fighting back to P15. Arvid Lindblad was in the mix for most part of the race before being involved in contact which caused him to go off. The resulting tyre damage forced him to retire. He will lead the PREMA trio on the grid for tomorrow’s Race 2 from the front row.

1 DINO BEGANOVIC

“Disappointing Sprint Race. I had a very good start, and I was challenging in turn 1, and as I went on power I spun around. A mistake by me, so I’m sorry for the team, but the pace was really good. We made a good comeback, no points but we definitely learned for tomorrow, which is the most important thing.”

Qualifying: P5
Starting Position Race 1: P8
Fastest lap: 1:20.424
Race 1: P15

2 GABRIELE MINÌ

“It was a pretty good race, we got some valuable points. We had a decent start, stayed there, and tried to manage as much as possible for the first 15 laps, and then I started pushing before we got a safety car. It was not ideal of course, but after that, we were able to attack straight away. Today’s pace looks good for tomorrow, but we have to keep working, watch data, and analyze to see what we have to do now.”

Qualifying: P4
Starting Position Race 1: P9
Fastest lap: 1:20.417
Race 1: P6

3 ARVID LINDBLAD

“A bit of a difficult race today. Obviously, I knew that staring further back in the back would be more challenging, with a lot of dirty air. The main priority was to work for tomorrow. The pace was quite strong and I could follow very easily, but it was just difficult to pass in the DRS train. Unfortunately, then I got hit and got a puncture. Not the best result, but the pace is quite strong and I’m confident for tomorrow.”

Qualifying: P2
Starting Position Race 1: P11
Fastest lap: 1:20.306
Race 1: DNF

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing