Paul Aron takes maiden Formula 3 victory in Austria sprint race
Paul Aron made his way through the FIA Formula 3 field in difficult conditions to take the sprint race victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Paul Aron celebrates his maiden FIA Formula 3 victory. (Formula Motorsport Limited)
The Estonian started eighth to take his maiden Formula 3 win in the reverse-grid race after pole sitter Pepe Martí fell down the order late in the session.
"Emotions are through the roof," said the PREMA driver.
"Obviously, it's still a sprint race, it's not a feature race win, but it does feel a lot more than that just because of what happened yesterday."
It was a comeback for Aron, who ended Friday qualifying fastest on the grid but lost his best time for exceeding track limits.
"PREMA gave me an amazing car and I was fully on it."
"We did the pole position and we were quickest throughout the whole qualifying session, but sadly my lap was deleted, which is fair.
"I mean track limits are there for a reason, but it obviously hurt and it feels like today is a bit of a redemption.
"Starting from the back of the grid and fighting through the pack with amazing pace, I really enjoyed the race and finally we got the win.
"So yeah, super happy and tomorrow's another day."
Campos driver Pepe Martí led Gabriele Minì away from the line, the Spaniard with the much better start as his championship rival slipped to third behind Kaylen Frederick.
Oliver Goethe stalled on the gird, dropping from fourth to 27th on the opening lap, with Paul Aron already up to third on his path to victory as a bump between Minì and Gabriel Bortoleto sent them both backwards.
Australian Hugh Barter was the first driver to fall foul of the wet conditions, catching the kerb in turn ten and spinning at the end of lap five.
Aron was making strides, catching and passing Kaylen Frederick on lap eight and setting about making up the 3.6 second gap to Martí in the lead.
Approaching half-race-distance and Minì had more life in his tyres than the surrounding cars, recovering back through the field, passing Frederick for second. Caio Collet made the move on the next lap into the final podium position.
With battles for position throughout the order, drivers were becoming more adventurous, with Franco Colapinto diving past Zak O'Sullivan at turn four for sixth before running off into the gravel. It was Oliver Gray against Rafael Villagómez at the same corner in the following laps, with the pair coming together and stranded on track with heavy damage.
The safety car neutralised the race on lap 11, with Martí holding his lead ahead of Aron at the lap 14 restart.
The PREMA driver chased down the leader over the following laps, going wheel-to-wheel on lap 17 before the lead changed hands for the first time on lap 18.
"I didn't even know which lap it was to be honest," said Aron.
"My engineer kept giving me the pace and I told him just give me the laps, give me the laps to go."
"After the safety car restart, I think everybody's tyres reset a bit, so the advantage I had before was kind of equalled for the first few laps and my restart wasn't so good. I think I didn't keep the tyres in temperature enough for the restart, so I struggled a bit. But then once I got the pace back up, I was starting to catch Pepe again and I already knew before the restart that we had the pace advantage.
"Then the fighting kept going, I thought I was going to be able to make the move easily, but it turned out not to be so easy and we were side by side for many corners in a row.
"Finally, out of Turn 1, we were three wide going into Turn 3. I would say I had pretty good positioning because I was in the middle off the racing line so I could brake quite late.
"I have to say to the other competitors, thank you because everybody was super respectful and that's why we were able to make the corner.
"But in the end, I came out in the lead and I was able to pull away with the good pace we had."
Minì joined the battle from the rear, with drivers lining up to pass the struggling leader. With Collet and O'Sullivan also passing the pole-sitter, a four-way battle developed for the final podium place, with Collet holding on at the chequered flag.
Aron took a triumphant maiden victory ahead of Minì, who took valuable points in his battle with championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto.
Bortoleto leads the standings ahead of Martí, with Minì and Aron on third and fourth respectively ahead of Dino Beganovic.
Christian Mansell was the highest-placed Australian in 14th, with Tommy Smith and Hugh Barter in 22nd and 23rd respectively.
The FIA Formula 3 field returns for the Feature Race at 4.35pm on Sunday (AEST).
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2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship - Sprint Race Results
- Paul Aron
- Gabriele Mini
- Caio Collet
- Zak O’Sullivan
- Jonny Edgar
- Pepe Marti
- Kaylen Frederick
- Dino Beganovic
- Sebastian Montoya
- Gabriel Bortoleto
- Luke Browning
- Mari Boya
- Franco Colapinto
- Christian Mansell (AUS)
- Leonardo Fornaroli
- Nikola Tsolov
- Nikita Bedrin
- Ido Cohen
- Sophia Floersch
- Hunter Yeany
- Gregoire Saucy
- Tommy Smith (AUS)
- Hugh Barter (AUS)
- McKenzy Creswell
- Roberto Faria
- Oliver Goethe
- Taylor Barnard
- Oliver Gary - DNF
- Rafael Villagomez - DNF
- Alejandro Garcia - DNF
