Today’s Formula 3 Feature race was a thrilling one, complete with plenty of overtakes and a lot of post-race penalties. After initially dropping to third at the start, Ugo Ugochukwu fought his way back up the field, passing Freddie Slater and pole sitter Théophile Naël. He held onto the lead at the Safety Car restart after Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi spun into the gravel at Turn 12. He built a decent gap to those behind him and charged to the finish line, claiming a maiden F3 win. For those behind Ugochukwu, it was a constant battle for position, with many drivers dropping down the field after penalties were applied post-race.
Read on to find out what the drivers had to say after a thrilling feature race packed with penalties.
A Last-Minute Trip to the Podium
For Taito Kato, his maiden F3 podium came as a shock; on track, he finished fifth over the line and was sure that was the best he would get. Only after his team notified him of Noah Strømsted and Naël’s penalties did Kato start to think of the podium.
“Finally, the engineer gave me the information during the last Safety Car. So to be honest, I didn’t know which position are we. Then I asked the staff which position are we and they said P3. I was a bit surprised. To be honest, we had a bit of luck in this race.”
Back on Top for Ugo
Ugochuwku started the Melbourne weekend topping Free Practice, and he looked set to claim pole position as well. However, in a last-minute dash to the line, Ugochukwu’s teammate Naël snatched P1 away from the young American on Friday afternoon. This did not discourage Ugochuwku in any way as he stormed to victory with a couple of good overtakes on the way.
“it’s great to have such a good start. It’s really important to hit the ground running and score good points throughout the first part of the season. It puts us in a much better position. But like I said before, it’s still round one, so we’re going to keep pushing. I’m sure not every weekend is going to be as simple.”
Slater on Battling His Teammate
Towards the end of today’s Feature race, Slater was battling with his teammate Strømsted for the final podium positions. Both drivers fought for position to get ahead of Naël, who was already handed a five-second penalty by the mid-point of the race. But after the chaos between teammates across the feeder series this weekend, the drivers were cautious when battling one another. The TRIDENT team also made an effort to notify them of the need for caution, and Slater was respectful of that message.
“I wouldn’t quite like crashing with my teammate and going back to [the team] after. And also, it doesn’t benefit me…We got a radio message anyway to be clean. And at the end of the day, we’re trying to get the most amount of points for our team. Of course, we’re trying to beat each other as well. But we try and do that respectfully and bring all three cars home at the end of the day.”
The top 10 in the Championship Standings after the Melbourne Feature Race:
| Position | Driver | Points |
| 1 | U. Ugochukwu | 25 |
| 2 | F. Slater | 18 |
| 3 | B. Del Pino | 18 |
| 4 | T. Kato | 16 |
| 5 | E. Deligny | 12 |
| 6 | M. Gładysz | 10 |
| 7 | B. Benavides | 6 |
| 8 | P. Clerot | 4 |
| 9 | B. Badoer | 3 |
| 10 | J. Nakamura | 2 |
Formula 3 will hopefully be back for Round 2 on the streets of Bahrain on the 10th of April.
Feature Image Credit: Formula 3