Sebastian Fernandez takes maiden F3 Asia win from pole
Sebastian Fernandez has won a lights-to-flag victory to claim Race 9 of the 2020 F3 Asian Championship., followed by Australian Jack Doohan and Nikita Mazepin.
Fernandez led from pole into Turn 1, followed by Doohan and Mazepin, but the race was quickly suspended when Yu Kanamaru spun out into the barriers.
The Spaniard was able to control the pack at the safety car restart on Lap 5, and had built a lead of more than a second when the yellow flags fell once again due to a bollard on the circuit.
The race resumed again on Lap 8 and Fernandez replicated his form, building his lead and pulling away to the chequered flag. Jack Doohan and Nikita Mazepin followed him over the line, unable to make any further progress up the field.
Sebastian Fernandez said “I just focused first of all on the start.”
“The two races before I had two really bad starts, so I didn’t want to get into the first corner in P2 or P3. Once I saw I had a good start I just kept my head down. We had the first safety car which was two or three laps long, and after that I had a good restart and pulled away from the other guys. Then again, another safety car which was quite short, and again I had a good start and good pace to the end. I’m happy with the result.”
Jack Doohan said “luck hasn’t really been on our side, but sometimes that’s motorsport.”
“I have good starts. This weekend we had some clutch issues which made it a fair bit more difficult not to stall the car, but I got off the line decently. I had a run on Sebastian, but there was no point in trying to do anything as 1) we’re team mates, and 2) I can’t afford anything! Then Nikita had a fair bit better pace than me for most of the race. Once the rear started to go it kind of helped my car a bit to get some rotation and I was able to manage the gap towards the end, but the pace wasn’t really outstanding.”
Fellow Australian Tommy Smith finished P8.
After Round 3 of the F3 Asian Championship, Joey Alders leads on 173 points, Jack Doohan is second with 125 points, and Nikita Mazepin is third with 124 points. Australian Tommy Smith is P11 with 13 points.
