The German-Danish driver finished fifth and seventh in the two races at the Red Bull Ring, extending his streak to twelve consecutive point-scoring races. Boya and Montoya were unable to emulate their teammate due to various incidents that damaged their chances
The FIA Formula 3 visit to the Red Bull Ring, the sixth of ten scheduled for 2024, brought mixed feelings for the Campos Racing drivers. While Oliver Goethe further strengthened his reliability as a driver—being the only one on the grid to have scored points in every race this year—both Mari Boya and Sebas Montoya lost their chances in Spielberg after getting involved in different incidents that prevented them from finishing among the top.
On Friday, in the morning free practice session, Goethe finished seventh on the timesheet with a personal best of 1m21.875s. Montoya and Boya were further back with times of 1m22.206s and 1m22.269s, respectively. By noon, during qualifying, traffic and timing played a crucial role. As usual, times improved towards the end, and Goethe, on his last attempt, clocked a lap of 1m20.467s, placing him sixth. Colombian Montoya also secured a front position with his time of 1m20.548s, earning eighth place. Unfortunately, Boya’s improvement was not enough to go beyond twenty-second place with a lap of 1m21.078s.
In Saturday's 21-lap sprint race, Montoya started fifth on the reversed grid while Goethe occupied seventh. Both drivers maintained their positions after the first lap, during which the safety car was deployed due to an accident. The race restarted on lap five with Montoya and Goethe involved in a fierce battle with Alex Dunne, Laurens Van Hoepen, and Gabriele Minì. Further back, Boya had already gained five positions. By lap ten, Montoya went on the offensive, trying to overtake Dunne for fourth place. The battle between the two lasted until lap 17, when contact between their cars led the Campos Racing driver to crash into the barriers, ending his race. Fortunately, Montoya was uninjured. The green flags waved again with one lap remaining, with Goethe finishing as the best Campos Racing driver in seventh place. A small off-track excursion by Boya in the final moments caused him to drop back to finish 22nd.
On Sunday, in a race scheduled for 26 laps, Goethe and Montoya had a good start, running fifth and sixth at the end of the first lap. While Goethe held fifth, Montoya got involved in a tussle with Noel León, Dunne, and Nikola Tsolov, which dropped him to ninth. Unfortunately, a hit from Tim Tramnitz at turn 3 soon after forced the Colombian to retire to the pits, ending a weekend that didn’t go his way. Boya was again on a comeback, overtaking rivals one after another. However, on lap 11, a collision with Nikita Bedrin resulted in a ten-second penalty, dashing his points-scoring hopes. Goethe exchanged positions with other cars in the second half of the race in a fight for the podium, ultimately finishing fifth. Boya, after the time penalty, ended up eighteenth.
After Austria, seven drivers stand out in the overall standings, with Goethe among them, having 77 points. In the teams' standings, Campos Racing is in fifth place with 129 points.
With no time to rest, Campos Racing will now head to Great Britain, as Silverstone hosts the seventh round of the season next weekend.
Photos: © Dutch Photo Agency
