For The First Time In F3 History Noah Strømsted Takes Victory
- therookiereporters
- Jul 3
- 4 min read
Strømsted claims maiden victory as a chaotic Spielberg weekend delivers drama across all sessions.
The Track
The track features a high-speed, 4.326 km layout with only 10 corners - 7 right and 3 left - and with the circuit being roughly 75% driven flat out, qualifying proved to be a major contributor throughout the weekend.
Day 1
Round 4 of the F3 season in Spielberg kicked off with a practice session on Friday.
Throughout the session many of the drivers struggled to keep it on track and especially many dropped a wheel in turn 4 or ran wide in turn 9 or turn 10.
With roughly 14 minutes left, the Danish driver Noah Strømsted set a lap time at 1:22.410 putting him at P1, which he could hold onto for the rest of the session as no one could match his pace.
The championship leader, Ugo Ugochukwu, didn’t seem to find the same pace as Strømsted and ended 17th in the one and only practice session.
The top 12:
1. Noah Strømsted
2. Taito Kato
3. Freddie Slater
4. Ernesto Rivera
5. Théophile Naël
6. Jin Nakamura
7. Pedro Clerot
8. Bruno del Pino
9. Jiyu Yamakoshi
10. Kanato Le
11. Mattia Colnago
12. Louis Sharp
The final session on Friday for the F3 grid was the highly anticipated qualifying session that determined the starting grid for the Sunday feature race. The top 12 from this qualifying session are reversed to form the front for the Saturday sprint race.
With 9 minutes of the session having passed by, Strømsted was yet again at the top of the times until Tuukka Taponen set a time of 1:21.775 putting him on provisional pole for the time being.
As seen in the earlier session, the drivers were still struggling to keep it on track. Freddie Slater even went all four wheels off at turn 1, making his time at 1:22.375 get deleted and going on the radio saying “The car is just not coming alive”.
With about 12 minutes remaining, Hiyu Yamakoshi could take from Taponen as he set a lap time of 1:21.730.
As the session went on and eventually ended, no driver could match the pace of the Japanese driver, Yamakoshi putting him on pole for Sunday's feature race.
The top 12:
1. Jiyu Yamakoshi
2. Ugo Ugochukwu
3. Tuukka Taponen
4. Noah Strømsted
5. Freddie Slater
6. Alessandro Giusti
7. Taitu Kato
8. Kanato Le
9. Jin Nakamura
10. Pedro Clerot
11. Ernesto Rivera
12. James Wharton
Day 2
The following day featured the Sprint Race, with the starting grid formed by reversing the top 12 from Friday’s qualifying session, while the remaining 18 drivers lined up in their original qualifying positions.
That makes the polesitter for the sprint, Barcelona’s sprint winner James Wharton next to Ernesto Rivera completing the front row. On the second row was Pedro Clerot and Jin Nakamura.
Going into turn 1, Wharton led the field with Rivera already defending his P2 from Clerot who had a great launch.
Further down the field a collision between Trident teammates Slater and Strømsted happened, triggering a safety car and a DNF for the British driver.
After 11 laps of enjoying a relatively comfortable lead, Wharton came under pressure from Campos’ Rivera, who had steadily closed the gap. As their battle unfolded, the chasing pack also began to catch up.
On Lap 14, Rivera could finally take the lead from Wharton, but wasn’t able to build a lead over a second until the final lap.
Capitalizing from a mistake by Wharton, Clerot moved up to second place and only a few seconds later Nakamura overtook Wharton as well, taking his podium spot.
At the end Ernesto Rivera could finally take his maiden win in the F3 Championship, with Clerot in P2 and Nakamura just 0.810 behind in P3.
The top 12:
1. Ernesto Rivera
2. Pedro Clerot
3. Jin Nakamura
4. James Wharton
5. Noah Strømsted
6. Tuukka Taponen
7. Taito Kato
8. Hiyu Yamakoshi
9. Ugo Ugochukwu
10. Bruno del Pino
11. Alessandro Giusti
12. Nicola Lacorte
Day 3
The final day of the Austrian race weekend featured the always action-packed feature race with the starting grid now being the original qualifying positions - P1: Yamakoshi, P2: Ugochukwu and P3: Taponen.
Into Turn 1, the top four held their positions, but just a few corners later the order began to change before a safety car was brought out following a clash further down the field.
Ugochukwu was now the race leader, closely followed up by Yamakoshi, hoping to get his first-place back and Strømsted now in P3 having overtaken Taponen.
Only two laps later after going back to racing, a virtual safety car was deployed to retrieve the cars of Woonyun Shin and Fernando Barrichello.
By Lap 9, Slater overtook Ugochukwu for the lead, but now being pressured by a whole train of cars wanting to do the same.
Despite the immense pressure, Slater kept his cool and held on to the lead until lap 22 out of 26, when Ugochukwu launched another attack. This time, the Trident driver was unable to keep him behind.
Ugochukwu only got to have P1 for a lap more as Slater launched a move on the outside of turn 4, forcing Ugochukwu to take the inside line and soon his teammate, Strømsted followed suit and moved up to P2.
The lead battle now became a Trident duel between Slater and Strømsted, with Strømsted overtaking his teammate into Turn 4 on Lap 24.
On the very final lap of the race, Ugochukwu found a gap on the inside of Slater and made a move to take P2.
In the end, it was Noah Strømsted who came out on top, securing his first Formula 3 victory after a dramatic and action-packed feature race.
The top 12:
1. Noah Strømsted
2. Ugo Ugochukwu
3. Freddie Slater
4. Pedro Clerot
5. Jin Nakamura
6. Taitu Kato
7. Tuukka Taponen
8. Hiyu Yamakoshi
9. Nicola Lacorte
10. Kanato Le
11. James Wharton
12. Enzo Deligny
Up next is Silverstone, where Formula 3 returns from the 3rd of July till the 5th of July.
Article written by Laura Friis
