– British round of FIA F3 one to forget for PREMA Racing Swede
– No points on the board on eventful mixed-weather weekend
Dino Beganovic endured a disappointing weekend in round seven of the FIA Formula 3 Championship at Silverstone, fighting valiantly in two rain-affected races but ultimately leaving the British event without adding to his points tally.
The weekend began on the backfoot for Beganovic in a challenging qualifying session, where he had an early lap deleted for track limits – leaving him without a time on the board just as rain started to fall over the circuit.
Although the track dried up surprisingly fast, setting up a late flurry of laps, Beganovic could only manage 19th in the end after sticking to used tyres, hoping that they would provide better grip than new Pirellis in the cold conditions. Proving not to be the case, it meant Beganovic had to start both races of the weekend from well down the grid.
“A really difficult weekend, which was set up in qualifying where I made a mistake and lost my lap, and then we made the wrong tyre choice when the track dried up,” says Dino Beganovic. “We paid the price for that in the races.”
In the sprint race on Saturday, the Swede had to take evasive action at Turn 1 to avoid an incident up ahead, running off the track and losing further positions. Beganovic, however, recovered strongly in the second half of the race to finish 12th.
After the sprint race was rescheduled a day prior due to heavy rain, changeable weather again proved a decisive factor in Sunday’s feature event, throwing up a strategic gamble on the fine edge between slicks and wet-weather tyres.
Beganovic took to the grid on wets, then pitted on the formation lap for slicks, and then swapped back to wets again as conditions worsened, only for the track to ultimately dry up once more in the closing stages.
Essentially on the wrong tyres at the wrong time, Beganovic (who also survived another scare when a rival driver clattered his car at high speed) wound up 19th, capping off a difficult weekend in Britain.
“It’s been very disappointing,” Dino Beganovic concludes. “Basically everything that could go wrong, did go wrong here. No points, but we always did our best and had a good recovery in the sprint race. We will now look into the weekend, see what we can improve, and go again at Hungaroring.”
The FIA Formula 3 Championship is back on track on July 19-21 at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary.
RESULTS
FIA Formula 3 Championship
Rd. 7 – Silverstone (GBR)
|| Race 1 (full results)
1: A. Lindblad (GBR), PREMA Racing
2: N. León (MEX), Van Amersfoort Racing
3: M. Zagazeta (PER), Jenzer Motorsport
—
12: D. Beganovic (SWE), PREMA Racing
|| Race 2 (full results)
1: A. Lindblad (GBR), PREMA Racing
2: G. Minì (ITA), PREMA Racing
3: C. Voisin (GBR), Rodin Motorsport
—
19: D. Beganovic (SWE), PREMA Racing
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
FIA Formula 3 Championship
After 7/10 rounds (full standings)
1: G. Minì (ITA), PREMA Racing, 119 p.
2: A. Lindblad (GBR), PREMA Racing, 113 p.
3: L. Browning (GBR), Hitech Pulse-Eight, 112 p.
4: L. Fornaroli (ITA), Trident, 93 p.
5: O. Goethe (GER), Campos Racing, 85 p.
—
6: D. Beganovic (SWE), PREMA Racing, 80 p.
