Dennis Hauger will be looking to extend his Championship lead as the drivers land in Austria for the third round of the F3 season

After a couple of days away from the track, Formula Three is back in action once more. This time, the drivers have the pleasure of travelling to Austria to race around the Red Bull Ring.

Back in action once more, F3 travels to the Red Bull Ring for the next chapter of the heated 2021 F3 Championship.

The last round of the season in Paul Ricard saw a variety of weather and fantastic wheel to wheel racing around the track located in Le Castellet, France.

Qualifying around the French circuit saw Frederik Vesti claim pole position for the Feature Race but it was Jenzer Motorsport’s Calan Williams that started from first for the first race of the weekend.

The Australian failed to hold onto the top spot, however, he was still able to finish inside the top three as he crossed the line in third. It was Aleksandr Smolyar who crossed the line in P1 ahead of home-hero Victor Martins in second.

Race two saw Prema’s Arthur Leclerc start from pole position. The brother of Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc drove a fantastic opening race coming through the pack to finish 12th after starting in 30th.

The Monegasque was able to convert that pole position into a race victory as he earned himself valuable points in the Championship. His Prema teammate Dennis Hauger crossed the line four seconds behind in second with Martins securing a second podium of the weekend as he finished third.

On Sunday, it was finally time for Vesti to start from pole position ahead of the ever-important Feature Race. The Dane fell down the order very quickly as he only mustered the pace to finish sixth in a damp race around Paul Ricard.

Joint-Championship leader Hauger and Jack Doohan battled for the race victory in the dying stages of the race, and it was the latter who claimed his maiden F3 victory.

The Prema driver crossed the line in second as he claimed the Championship lead by six points over MP Motorsport’s Martins.

Caio Collet overtook his MP Motorsport teammate to claim third place with the Frenchman missing out on a triple podium weekend by two seconds.

Last year, Formula 3 had back-to-back weekends at the Red Bull Ring which resulted in four different race winners.

Sebastian Fernandez qualified on pole position for the Feature Race, but the ART Grand Prix driver retired on the first lap of the race.

This allowed Oscar Piastri to win the race with the Australian accompanied by Prema Racing teammate Logan Sargeant and Alex Peroni on the podium.

Clement Novalak claimed reverse grid pole position for the Sprint Race but he was not able to convert it into a race win with Liam Lawson taking the victory ahead of Richard Verschoor in second and the aforementioned Novalak in third.

During the second weekend at the Red Bull Ring, Frederik Vesti, then for Prema Racing, claimed pole position for the Feature Race.

He was able to get the win but was only awarded half the points due to the race being cut short. Lirim Zendeli and David Beckmann completed the podium places with Jake Hughes claiming reverse grid pole position.

A collision on lap 20 saw the Brit’s hopes of winning the race fall to pieces as Theo Pourchaire crossed the line to earn his victory of the season. The Frenchman was joined by Sargeant and Beckmann on the podium as the duo finished second and third respectively.

Dennis Hauger currently leads in the Championship and the Norweigan knows that any slip up this weekend will cost him dearly. He has Victor Martins and Jack Doohan right behind him in the standings with the duo waiting for a mistake from the Prema driver which could see them move to the top spot in the Championship after this weekend.

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