Beganovic takes maiden FIA F3 win for PREMA Racing
Dino Beganovic cruised to his maiden FIA Formula 3 Championship win today at Albert Park in Melbourne. The young Swede, a Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member, started from third place and, surviving an early safety-car, chased the lead, snatching it on lap 14. He then was in control and exited the DRS zone.
Gabriele Minì posted a podium finish in P3. Starting second, he dropped a couple of positions but successfully reclaimed P3 on lap 22 to deliver his first podium of the year.
Coming from yesterday's second place in the Sprint Race, Arvid Lindblad had a top-5 race until the final stages, when he started to suffer from tyre wear and dropped out of the points zone despite a late surge in performance.
#1 - DINO BEGANOVIC
"Winning in Melbourne feels really good. It was a great race with a brilliant pace as well. The car felt nice to drive and I was confident with my driving, comfortable with the car. I have to thank the team for that, we definitely learned something yesterday that we applied today and the result that came is what we wanted. I'm really pleased and we can head into the break with a smile."
#2 - GABRIELE MINÌ
"Just finished the Feature Race in Melbourne with P3. At some point, I thought we were not going to be able to finish in the top-5. How we came back is quite positive, but it's a bit of a shame that we got the graining early on, which cost me five or six seconds compared to the others who got it later. Once we cleaned the graining we were really quick and in the first phase, I was under the limit and still keeping up with P1. As said, a bit of a shame, but still good points for the championship. We'll try to fight back next time."
#3 - ARVID LINDBLAD
"A bit of a challenging race today. The start was really good, I was able to make a few positions on the first lap and also capitalized on the safety car re-start. I was in P5 and after a few laps I was able to have a decent pace, but I was pushing a bit too hard for the speed I had, and overused the tyres. I suffered a lot with the graining and degradation. The middle part of the race was really slow and went backwards. It came a bit back in the last few laps but it was too little too late. It isn't the result we want, but we will analyze what I can do better for the next rounds."