PREMA posted a double points finish today as the FIA Formula 3 Championship got underway with the Sprint Race at Imola. With two drivers starting towards the front, the team navigated the early situations in what turned out to be an eventful sprint race, although tyre degradation soon came into play.
Ugo Ugochukwu and Noel León fought hard into the top 10 and eventually had to settle for the 8th and 9th spots, respectively, securing two points finishes.
Starting from P15, Brando Badoer could not replicate the pace he had shown in qualifying, where he had fought for the top 5. The Italian eventually ended up in P16, as he couldn't maximise the incidents that led to two safety-car situations.
#1 BRANDO BADOER
"Starting in the middle of the pack, it was a chaotic race. Still, the pace wasn't as good as yesterday. We will try to figure out what happened and bounce back tomorrow."
#2 NOEL LEON
"Really difficult race, as we didn't have the pace to be up there. We ran out of tyres, and there were a lot of safety cars, so we finished in P9. Not ideal, we need to look at what happened with the car and try to improve for tomorrow."
#3 UGO UGOCHUKWU
"The start of the race was decent, and we moved forward a couple of spots. Then I struggled a little bit at the end, and I made a small mistake on the last lap that cost me two positions. Finishing P8, we got a few points. We will now try to improve for tomorrow."