FIA Formula 3 Championship – Beganovic wins, PREMA delivers brilliant 1-2 finish

PREMA Racing delivered a perfect run today at Spa-Francorchamps as the FIA Formula 3 Championship began its Belgian weekend at the famous venue. Starting from the front row of the reverse grid after an eventful qualifying session, Dino Beganovic and Gabriele Minì dominated the whole 12 laps securing the team’s seventh win of the season.

By taming tricky conditions, with a drying track and slick tyres, Beganovic achieved his second win of 2024. After losing the point at the start, the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy driver reclaimed it restarting from an early safety car situation. Minì maximized his position to extend his championship lead with P2. The Alpine Academy racer got his fifth podium of the year through masterful defense and a clean final run.

Last but not least, Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad put up a great show, bouncing back from P27 on the starting grid to the outer edge of the points zone in P12 in a brilliant display. Despite a later drop due to track limits violations, he set the tone for a chase to the points zone in tomorrow’s Feature Race.

#1 DINO BEGANOVIC
“P1 in the Sprint, well executed today in tricky conditions, we did our job. I had a tough getaway with a lot of wheelspin, and Gabriele got in front of me, but I was able to recover afterward, which I’m very happy about. After that, I was just managing the race and getting a taste of what degradation would look like tomorrow. A little bit of fine-tuning for tomorrow, but I think we can also race from where we are starting. I’m very happy to be on the top step again, very useful for the team as well.”

#2 GABRIELE MINÌ
“We finished the Sprint Race in P2 and gained some points on our main competitors which is our goal. We wanted to go for that win, but we got a bit unlucky with the safety car. It got a really good start and managed to get ahead, but Dino overtook me after the restart and I tried to stay with him. Sometimes it was easy to be closer, some others it was trickier and the others would get closer. In the end, we understood a lot of things for tomorrow and we can try again and fight for some points.”

#3 ARVID LINDBLAD
“Quite a decent race today. I started P27 and I was P12 on track, it was a good recovery but we still ended up out of the points, so even with the track limits penalty, it doesn’t mean so much. We took the opportunities when they came and did a good job. I’m happy about my race and we look ahead to tomorrow and see if we can try and score some points, but when you start basically last it’s not so easy.”