The Spaniard claimed a lights-to-flag win in his Campos Racing-run Dallara F3 car during Saturday’s sprint race. Martí and Yeany saw their chances of points-paying finishes damaged as a result of racing incidents but showed excellent potential
Campos Racing and Spanish ace David Vidales managed to be prophets at home claiming a commanding victory at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which hosted the third round of the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship season in the frame of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix. Vidales, a rookie in the series, delivered a faultless performance to bring a Spanish win home. IndyCar Champion Alex Palou, at the wheel of another car of Campos Racing, also won back in 2015 in the then-named GP3 Series. Campos Racing feels proud being such a breeding ground for the Spanish stars of the future.
On Friday, Campos Racing made a strong start to the weekend with Vidales posting a time in the top-ten with a lap of 1m33.676s during the free practice session, despite the goal was to run long stint with race pace in mind. Similarly, Pepe Martí and Hunter Yeany clocked competitive times with laps of 1m33.824s and 1m34.461s respectively. Later in qualifying, which took place in high track temperatures, Vidales set a time of 1m33.873s that secured his pole position on the reverse starting grid for Saturday. Martí’s best effort produced a lap of 1m34.117s to start from row 8 and, slightly further adrift, American Yeany clocked a lap time of 1m34.342s.
When the lights went out on Saturday, Vidales mastered race start to keep Juan Manuel Correa at bay. Vidales’s pace was quicker than Correa and built a two-second lead after four laps. Just by then, Jak Crawford moved past Correa for second and started to put the Spaniard under pressure. The race saw the hottest phase on lap 11, when Crawford tried to overtake Vidales on the outside at T1. The Spaniard fended Crawford off then and for the remaining nine laps. After 32 minutes, Vidales took the checkered flag in first place ahead of Crawford and Caio Collet. Martí completed a solid race battling with Isack Hadjar, Gregoire Saucy and Oliver Bearman and crossed the finish line in 13th place. Yeany got involved in a racing incident on lap one and was forced to pit. Afterwards, Yeany put in a recovery drive consistently lapping in times of frontrunners.
On Sunday, Campos Racing drivers gained several places on the opening lap. Vidales had moved up to tenth by the halfway point and following two safety car periods. During the second restart, Vidales made an attempt to pass series leader Arthur Leclerc but both cars made contact. Vidales’ race came to an early end as a result after heading into the pit lane with car damage. Martí and Yeany weren’t luckier and their hopes were dashed due to racing incidents. Martí ended up in 21st place and Yeany took the checkered flag five places further adrift.
After three rounds, Vidales sits tenth in the drivers’ standings with Campos Racing moving up to seventh in the teams’ classification.
The fourth round of the season will take place at Silverstone circuit on 2-3 July.
