Antonio Giovinazzi has taken a superb maiden victory having led every lap of the final race of the FIA Formula Three European Championship weekend in Austria. The Italian racer had lined up on pole position and remained cool during the one safety car period to lead the field to the chequered flag – clinching his first win in the championship in the process. In good company Tom Blomqvist joined him on the podium taking second position and his third podium of the weekend. Team mate Sean Gelael also enjoyed another strong race in which he fought through to the claim tenth position as his own. Gelael’s position also means that all three Jagonya Ayam with Carlin drivers finished the race within the top ten.
Off the line Blomqvist beat his team mate in to the first corner however Giovinazzi wasn’t going to let him keep the position; the Italian racer fought hard to quickly re-take the lead of the race. This meant that both drivers were able to soon pull a gap at the front as the race started to settle. Meanwhile Gelael was running in 16th position by the end of the very first lap.
Soon enough though the on-track action was brought to a halt when the safety car was released to deal with incidents on track. By this point Gelael had already began to make his move and was in 13th position as the cars slowed on track and awaited the race restart.
Upon the restart, Giovinazzi held his nerve and stormed passed the start-finish straight in an effort to pull a gap to team mate Blomqvist behind. Managing this well the pair continued the status quo of first and second throughout the remainder of the race.
The big changes for positions in the racing action came from Gelael who was enjoying another race of overtaking and closing gaps to drivers ahead. Pushing hard to take another points finish Gelael was able to keep out of trouble and take advantage of the scrapping cars ahead. He would further benefit when an incident between Antonio Fuoco and Max Verstappen left the former in the pit lane and the letter handed a drive through penalty. The Indonesian racer took the flag in an impressive tenth position.
However at the front Giovinazzi could do no wrong. Having pulled a gap over Blomqvist in second the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin driver came home to clinch his maiden FIA Formula Three European Championship win in dominant style. Blomqvist took the flag in second positon overall claiming his third podium of the weekend.
Upon claiming his maiden win Giovinazzi said, ‘It was such a great race for me to finally take the victory after this morning. We had fantastic pace throughout and even though I came under pressure from Tom [Blomqvist] at the start I was able to hold him off and pull a gap. We were fast and the car was just unbelievable. I’m so happy to take my first win and the team did a great job all weekend.’
Blomqvist added, ‘The race was really good for the entire Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team. I got close to Antonio in turn two and three however he was faster than me and could keep the lead. After that it was a case of pushing hard and not making mistakes however I didn’t really come under much pressure from behind because we were both able to pull a gap. This weekend has gone really well for me so overall I’m happy with our results.’
Sean said, ‘It was a good start and we were fighting really well with good pace during the first lap and closing in on the top ten. However I tried a move on Serralles and I wasn’t given quite enough room so I lost out there a little. But after that it was full attack mode and we were able to get back to tenth. I’m really happy with how the race went and I think we’ve made a big step this weekend – now we have to continue this into the next round.’
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