Jack Doohan takes F3 Asia win in slippery Sepang
Australian Jack Doohan has won Race 3 of the F3 Asian Championship ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco and Joey Alders.
Doohan was on pole for Race 3, with reigning champion Ukyo Sasahara beside him in second.
Doohan sped away from the line, while Sasahara lost out to both Joey Alders and Yu Kuai.
The Australian Red Bull Junior pulled away, with the order settling in behind him as Alders, Sasahara, DeFrancesco, Yu.
Sasahara lost his back end while preparing a move for second, spinning out of the race. This moved DeFrancesco onto the podium, and promoted Nikita Mazepin to fifth—an impressive charge from his start at the rear of the grid.
A lock-up from Alders on the last lap gifted second place to DeFrancesco. Doohan also ran wide on the final corner, but was well clear of his rivals and claimed the lights-to-flag victory.
Doohan said “it’s good to finish on the top step again. I underestimated the start a bit.”
”I thought it wasn’t going to be as slippery as it was, so I didn’t get the launch I could have but it was good to get away from the rest. The pace was good for the first five or six laps and I was able to get into a rhythm and not stress the car too much. There were constant sprinkles [of rain] throughout the race, but then it started to get heavier so I kept pushing to an extent. I saw Joey made a mistake and I knew I still had limit in the bag and I wanted to try and extend the lead. My engineer had to keep telling me to try and back off the pace. At the end there were few unexpected moments!”
Fellow Australian Tommy Smith finished P10.
F3 Asian Championship Race 3
- Jack Doohan (AUS)
- Devlin DeFrancesco
- Joey Alders
- Yu Kuai
- Nikita Mazepin
- Jake Hughes
- Daniel Cao
- Jamie Chadwick
- Tatiana Calderón
- Tommy Smith (AUS)
- Pietro Fittipaldi
- Alessio Deledda
- Thomas Luedi
- Paul Wong
- Ukyo Sasahara DNF
- Yu Kanamaru DNF
