Joey Alders cements F3 Asia lead with wet Dubai victory

Dutchman Joey Alders has taken Race 5 of the 2020 F3 Asian Championship, followed by Sebastian Fernandez and Australian Jack Doohan.

After a night of continuous rainfall, the F3 Asia field started race 5 with two formation laps before embarking on a shortened race to keep the hectic weekend of the Dubai 24H on-schedule.

Jake Hughes started on pole and held his led as the race began, but he ran wide in the slippery conditions, gifting Joey Alders the race lead.

Sebastian Fernandez had started down in seventh, but was up to P3 in the early running, and quickly dispatched Hughes for second.

Devlin DeFrancesco followed Fernandez through the pack, making his way up from eighth to fourth.

Australian Jack Doohan started on the second row but after the events of the opening laps, was down in P9.

With the track drying out, Alders held a comfortable lead over Fernandez and Nikita Mazepin, but Doohan was the fastest in the changing conditions and quickly closed in on the leading pack

On the final lap, Doohan was able to catch and pass Jake Hughes for fourth, and eventually fought his way past Mazepin to take the final spot on the podium.

Joey Alders said “The race was fine.“

“I had a good start as I tried to get as little wheelspin as possible. From there, I tried to minimize the mistakes and bring it home. With about eight laps to go I saw Fernandez made a small mistake and heard on the radio I was losing time in sectors 2 and 3, so I had a bit of room to try some different lines. Then I just wanted to finish and bring it home for the team. It’s good points to extend the gap in the championship and keep building from there.”

Jack Doohan said “At the start of the race I had a few issues that were out of my control, so I had to stay cool and luckily they cleared up and I started to get the pace mid-race. I got past the little group in the middle and had a clear pace advantage there. I got to the Hitech cars on the last lap and got past Hughes at Turn 3, and then my pace advantage stayed so I was able to get past Mazepin in the last sector. I was very happy and enjoyed it a lot!”

Fellow Australian Tommy Smith finished P12.