Press Releases - F3 Masters Round 1 Pau Sprint: Villeneuve wins after safety pitstop

F3 Masters Round 1 Pau Sprint: Villeneuve wins after safety pitstop

Steve Villeneuve wins the F3 Masters Season 29 Pau Sprint Race after quicker safety car pit stop sees him jump rivals, Bartek Szybki finishing 2nd and Samuel Bellamy 3rd, more to follow...

Report:
Race started under single file and some overtakes started down at the Turn 2 hairpin but the big move happened at Turn 6 with Bartek Szybki going around the outside of Steve Villeneuve for 2nd with his lighter fuel load than rivals around him which tells that he could be on an aggressive strategy but potentially the one that could give him the race win but the other Canadian he had to later worry about was Samuel Bellamy and he was controlling the race and defintely his pace lap by lap, other than that the top 10 remained unchanged with Thorin Eichenschild making a move under braking on Heleia Gerones for 8th on Lap 4 before she retook the place 9 laps later, going a little further down, Abilio Nario caused a huge train of cars to follow behind him for 12th which meant the race was heating up at all places of the racetrack right now, Lap 14 saw Steve Villeneuve lose another place to Marc Vilanova who was on a similar strategy to Szybki, same way just different timing and lap, half a lap later Luiz Thomazini made his charge on Cordell Glifford down the inside of Turn 2 for 5th but the top 6 were so close to each other but it meant nothing with Pau's harsh nature of overtaking. A spin for Novikov on lap 20 saw him lose positions but he was able to rejoin the track safely but a real casualty happened at the halfway point of the race on Lap 24 when Honzik Volak Jr. had a tankslapper at Turn 5 and crashed into the wall spiced up the race completely that the safety car had to be called out to clear his stricken car, almost all the field dived into the pits and the pitstop had became the biggest factor of the race, Villeneuve did a 6 second pitstop and saw him jump infront of Szybki who had also jumped Bellamy, Glifford and Eichenschild proven to be big winners as well as they jump up to 4th and 6th respectively while Vilanova lost out completely, losing the podium but alo another 5 places down in 8th. The race resumed on lap 30 with Villeneuve pulling away from Szybki and Bellamy, showing his true pace in the second stint but the restarted didn't last long when Karina Sette and Philip Goldberg III came to blows at Turn 6 while fighting at the back with the latter having to climb out of the car and the safety car had to reappear once more. Race got away once more on Lap 36 and Villeneuve had to redo his work but the restart last longer until Lap 40 when Sasu Suikkanen lost the rear through the tricky Turns 7/8/9 chicane and crashed into the barrier, needing the safety car once more, green flag waved again on Lap 46 and all Villeneuve had to do was bring it home with 3 laps to go which he did, from Szybki and Bellamy who will be slightly disappointed not taking the race win which his compartiot did but the fact that he gets a decent amount of points which could be important for the championship camapign, Glifford beating Thomazini and Eichenschild to 4th, Vilanova failing to find his way past Petter Solberg Jr whose having a decent meeting so far in 7th, Heleia Genores and Mack Zaggro rounding out the top 10, the final end of the points go to Roy Penninckmeester, Alex Reis, Steve Villeneuve, Zach Austin who set the fastest lap of the race and gained the most places (7) from his starting position on overtakes alone apart from Marc Montane who finished 22nd from the back after a disasterous qualifying and to round out the points was Andrea DeCesaris.

Results:
https://www.myracingcareer.com/en/report/29-16570-report/ (I'm on my phone so I do apologise for not putting the full results but please do click or copy and paste the link for it)



See you guys tomorrow and tyre management will be key for this 70 lap race and no lucky safety cars this time!