FIA-F3

Positive progress for Campos Racing in Austrian FIA F3 round

Cordeel kept in close contention for points in race 2 to score a season-best eleventh on Saturday. Colombo and Tóth also improved during the weekend after a tough qualifying session

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Campos Racing continued improving its overall performance at the Red Bull Ring, which hosted the Austrian venue on the 2021 calendar this weekend. The single Spanish-based racing team in the series entered its three Dallara F3 cars for Amaury Cordeel, Lorenzo Colombo and László Tóth.

After Friday’s free practice session in which Italian Colombo completed a strong outing to finish in the top-ten, the qualifying session was expected to be extremely closely-fought. Besides, heavy traffic wasn’t either a very bold prediction. In such conditions, the Campos Racing drivers struggled to put all sectors together and find a clean lap. Colombo qualified 20th in his Campos Racing-entered Dallara F3 car with a best lap of 1m20.634s. Cordeel clocked a time of 1m20.680s to start from 23rd and Tóth, returning at the wheel of the car after missing the French event, qualified 28th with a lap time of 1m21.292s.

Colombo saw his chances dashed in race 1 when he was forced to pit after an incident-marred opening lap. Cordeel and Tóth completed a solid race in the middle of the pack, switching positions several times, and took the checkered flag in 21st and 22th place respectively. Colombo consistently lapped in 1m23s, which was the same pace up the front, and crossed the finish line in 26th after the unscheduled pit stop.

In the afternoon, Belgian Cordeel secured his best result of the season so far. After avoiding some clashes in the first lap, Cordeel got a move done on Rafael Villagomez for P16 in lap 8. He had already moved up to 12th when the VSC was deployed three laps later. The Belgian driver put up a tough fight involved in battles with drivers such as Arthur Leclerc, Enzo Fittipaldi or Clement Novalak. Finally, Cordeel bring a 11th-place finish home. Further adrift, Colombo finished 19th with Tóth making it to the finish in 21st place.

Sunday brought the curtain down on the weekend with another exciting race. Colombo took this time the leading role for Campos Racing and the Italian delivered a positive performance in his Dallara car. He managed to get past Ayumu Iwasa for P17 in lap four. In the closing stages of the race, Colombo gained a couple of places else to take the checkered flag in 15th position. Cordeel ended up in 21st place with Tóth three positions further adrift.

The FIA Formula 3 Championship now takes a four-week hiatus ahead of its fourth round at the Hungaroring on 31 July-1 August. The Hungarian event will mark season’s midpoint.