Dennis Hauger sails to a phenomenal Formula 3 race three victory in damp conditions at the Hungaroring

Credit: F3

The dominant Dennis Hauger drove excellently in Hungary to round off another brilliant weekend for the Prema driver, who extends his championship lead heading into the summer break.

Starting Grid

The race three grid was headed by Arthur Leclerc who set an excellent lap during Friday’s qualifying session. He lined up alongside his Prema teammate and F3 championship leader Hauger on the front row.

The Trident trio lined up next. Jack Doohan started from third ahead of David Schumacher with Clement Novalak starting fifth alongside ART’s Aleksandr Smolyar in sixth.

Saturday’s race one winner Ayumu Iwasa started 10th, with race two winner Matteo Nannini starting from 13th.

As It Happened

Embed from Getty Images

The cars come out for their sighting laps on a damp track, however, a sudden downpour moments before lights out meant that the race would start behind the safety car.

From the start, everyone got away cleanly and navigated the first series of corners despite a large amount of spray filling the air behind each car.

Victor Martins attempted a brave and bold overtake on Oliver Rasmussen, however, the Frenchman misjudged the grip levels at turn nine, sending him skating towards the barrier and bringing out the Safety Car.

At the start of lap five, Olli Caldwell out-braked himself at turn one, clipping Frederick Vesti. Despite the Brit running off momentarily, both drivers continued with their race.

Two laps later, leader Leclerc started to come under pressure from Hauger behind. The Prema duo battled through sector one, but Leclerc made his car as wide as possible and held the lead of the race.

Hauger refused to back down as he set himself up for a beautiful move around the outside of the Monegasque at turn two on lap nine, subsequently taking the lead of the race and using the clear air ahead of him to set the fastest lap.

Over the coming laps, the track started to dry out meaning that all drivers had to preserve their wet compound tyres to last the final eight laps of the race.

On lap 13, Enzo Fittipaldi made a neat move on Logan Sargeant at turn 13, promoting himself up to 10th place into the points.

Hauger continued to pull away from Leclerc, and third place Doohan started to close in on the second-placed Monegasque.

Fittipaldi made another move at turn 13, this time on the struggling Iwasa on lap 17. The Japanese driver, who was low on grip, soon was sucked into a battle over the line with Sargeant and Lorenzo Colombo and it was the American who came out on top.

At the same corner a lap later, Ido Cohen was clipped by Jak Crawford, sending both drivers into a spin. Lazlo Toth rounded the blind turn two unsighted and collided with Cohen, but thankfully both drivers walked away as the Safety Car was deployed to end the race.

In the end, Hauger came away victorious, extending his championship lead. The Norwegian was joined on the podium by Leclerc and Doohan, who moved up to second in the Drivers’ Standings.

Rounding out the top 10 was Schumacher, Novalak, Smolyar, Vesti, Caldwell, Fittipaldi and Sargeant.

Quote from the race winner

After the race, winner Dennis Hauger spoke to the press about his winning overtake on his Prema teammate Arthur Leclerc:

“I tried to make a move [on Arthur]a few laps earlier – I found a few lines that worked for me although I didn’t get through. I found a line that had a lot of grip on the exit of turn two. It was a nice battle, it was tricky to stay on track, but yeah I enjoyed it a lot!

What’s Next?

F3 are next in action after the summer break at Spa in three weeks time, where Doohan and Caldwell will hope to close the gap to runaway championship leader Hauger.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt