Italian Colombo added more points to his tally at Sochi by finishing sixth in his Campos Racing-entered Dallara F3 car
Campos Racing scored more points during the FIA Formula 3 season finale at Sochi Autodrom this weekend. The Spanish-based team again showed good pace and Italian Lorenzo Colombo fought for top honors once again. Belgian Amaury Cordeel and Hungarian László Tóth couldn’t shine throughout the weekend.
On Friday, Colombo, Cordeel and Tóth made a positive start to the weekend in free practice with the Italian being the fastest of Campos Racing with a lap time of 1m55.245s. Later in qualifying, Colombo delivered an excellent performance to secure the 6th-fastest time by completing a lap of 1m54.759s, a nice achievement considering it was his very first time at Sochi. Cordeel clocked a lap time of 1m55.466s and set to start from 20th and Tóth would line up 27th on the starting grids with a lap time of 1m56.600s.
Race 1 finally took place on Friday afternoon as heavy rain forecast for Saturday morning made it the right choice. When the lights went out, Colombo dropped to eighth on the opening lap but the Italian had moved up to seventh three laps later. By lap 9, Colombo set his personal fastest lap of 1m56.951s to pull away from Juan Manuel Correa and was running right behind Clement Novalak. Shortly after, Colombo also moved past Jak Crawford for sixth place in which he took the checkered flag. Cordeel crossed the finish line in 21st place and Tóth was forced with three laps into the race.
Saturday’s race 2 was cancelled in the morning due to the soaking wet circuit of Sochi and drivers were to await until Sunday to hit the track again. From sixth on the grid, Colombo made a fantastic start and moved up to fourth but unfortunately Frederik Vesti forced him wide and dropped seven places as running on the astroturf area caused a clear loss of traction. Colombo kept in contention for points-paying positions until he was forced to pit and retire on lap 17. Cordeel put in a good recovery drive and took the checkered flag in 16th place. Tóth finished 22th this time.
Colombo was the highest Campos Racing driver in the standings with 32 points and 15th overall. Campos Racing finished 8th in the teams’ standings.
Photo: © Dutch Photo Agency'
