Felix made up five positions to come home fourth in an action-packed second race of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.
In the best conditions seen so far at the Belgian meeting, the F3 field put on an exciting race that featured one safety car period, several controversial incidents, dedicated overtaking moves and thrilling slipstreaming duels along the Kemmel straight.
Felix started the race from ninth following yesterday’s wet qualifying lottery, and held on to the same position around the first sequence of corners. He then gradually picked off his slower rivals one by one over the following laps, overtaking Felipe Guimaraes, Tatiana Calderón (who would go on to score a career-best fifth), Alexander Toril and fellow Swede John Bryant-Meisner to find himself sitting sixth at the half-way point.
Up ahead, Lucas Auer then collided dramatically with Félix Serrallés while battling over fourth, bringing out the safety car. As a result, Felix was promoted to P4, right on the tail of Gustavo Menezes (Van Amersfoort Racing).
The safety car restart brought with it no change in positions, with Felix unable to challenge Menezes down the straights despite repeatedly getting within striking distance of the American through the twisting middle sector.
Max Verstappen scored a second “home” win of the day (the Dutchman living in the Belgian village of Hasselt), while Esteban Ocon came home second ahead of Menezes and Felix. The top four were separated by just three seconds.
The final race of the weekend takes place tomorrow morning.
FELIX:
“That was an OK race, and a good way to wrap up today. We were competitive in terms of lap time – I was able to run in the 2m11.4s bracket, along with Max and Esteban, but it’s still quite clear that we’re lacking speed on the straights. I was a lot quicker than Menezes in the closing stages, but wasn’t even close to lining him up for an overtaking attempt, so that’s something we’ll have to look at for the future. Other than that, it was a fun race with lots going on, and fourth from ninth is decent progress.”
RESULTS
| Pos. | No | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | Max Verstappen / NED Van Amersfoort Racing | 15 | 35:48.572 | |
| 2 | 2 | Esteban Ocon / FRA Prema Powerteam | 15 | 35:49.377 | 0.805 |
| 3 | 16 | Gustavo Menezes / USA Van Amersfoort Racing | 15 | 35:50.414 | 1.842 |
| 4 | 27 | Felix Rosenqvist / SWE kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 15 | 35:51.593 | 3.021 |
| 5 | 18 | Tatiana Calderón / COL Jo Zeller Racing | 15 | 35:56.564 | 7.992 |
| 6 | 28 | Jake Dennis / GBR Carlin | 15 | 35:57.829 | 9.257 |
| 7 | 1 | Nicholas Latifi / CAN Prema Powerteam | 15 | 36:00.181 | 11.609 |
| 8 | 31 | Tom Blomqvist / GBR Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 15 | 36:00.685 | 12.113 |
| 9 | 19 | Antonio Giovinazzi / ITA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 15 | 36:01.793 | 13.221 |
| 10 | 5 | Jordan King / GBR Carlin | 15 | 36:01.983 | 13.411 |
| 11 | 4 | Roy Nissany / ISR kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 15 | 36:02.822 | 14.250 |
| 12 | 9 | Mitchell Gilbert / AUS Fortec Motorsports | 15 | 36:03.520 | 14.948 |
| 13 | 20 | Sean Gelael / INA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 15 | 36:04.990 | 16.418 |
| 14 | 26 | Dennis van de Laar / NED Prema Powerteam | 15 | 36:05.904 | 17.332 |
| 15 | 11 | Richard Goddard / AUS ThreeBond with T-Sport | 15 | 36:06.260 | 17.688 |
| 16 | 17 | Sandro Zeller / SUI Jo Zeller Racing | 15 | 36:06.972 | 18.400 |
| 17 | 22 | Hector Hurst / GBR Team West-TecF3 | 15 | 36:08.999 | 20.427 |
| 18 | 10 | John Bryant-Meisner / SWE Fortec Motorsports | 15 | 36:13.066 | 24.494 |
| 19 | 12 | Alexander Toril / ESP ThreeBond with T-Sport | 13 | 32:13.844 | 2 LAPS |
| NOT CLASSIFIED | |||||
| – | 21 | Félix Serrallés / USA Team West-TecF3 | 8 | 17:45.090 | D.N.F. |
| – | 3 | Lucas Auer / AUT kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport | 8 | 17:45.568 | D.N.F. |
| – | 14 | Felipe Guimaraes / BRA Double R Racing | 2 | 6:08.169 | D.N.F. |
| – | 25 | Antonio Fuoco / ITA Prema Powerteam | 1 | 2:26.112 | D.N.F. |
| – | 8 | Michele Beretta / ITA Eurointernational | 1 | 2:26.506 | D.N.F. |
| – | 15 | Jules Szymkowiak / NED Van Amersfoort Racing | 1 | 2:59.700 | D.N.F |