2024 Melbourne Formula 3 round

The 2024 Melbourne FIA Formula 3 round was a motor racing event held between 21 and 24 March 2024 at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Australia. It was the second round of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship and was held in support of the 2024 Australian Grand Prix.

  2024 Melbourne Formula 3 round

Round details
Round 2 of 10 in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Layout of the Albert Park Circuit
Location	Albert Park Circuit Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit 5.278 km (3.280 mi)
Sprint Race
Date 23 March 2024 Laps 20 Podium First Martinius Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight Second Arvid Lindblad Prema Racing Third Laurens van Hoepen ART Grand Prix Fastest lap Driver Luke Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight Time 1:36.186 (on lap 2)
Feature Race
Date 24 March 2024 Laps 23 Pole position Driver Leonardo Fornaroli Trident Time 1:33.044 Podium First Dino Beganovic Prema Racing Second Leonardo Fornaroli Trident Third Gabriele Minì Prema Racing Fastest lap Driver Dino Beganovic Prema Racing Time 1:35.588 (on lap 7)

Classification

Summary

Leonardo Fornaroli qualified in first place at Albert Park Circuit ahead of Gabriele Minì and Dino Beganovic. Laurens van Hoepen started the sprint race from the front, and he and Martinius Stenshorne exchanged the lead multiple times in the early laps. Stenshorne ultimately held the position and then kept Arvid Lindblad behind, who had progressed to second place from fifth at the start. Stenshorne's victory was his first FIA Formula 3 podium finish.

Feature race pole-sitter Fornaroli led at the start and through the first restart after the safety car was deployed to recover Tommy Smith and Joseph Loake's collided cars. Beganovic overtook Fornaroli for the lead on lap 14. Minì had lost third place to Luke Browning but recovered the podium place on the penultimate lap. Beganovic's victory was his first in the category, and promoted him to fourth place in the Drivers' Championship. At the end of the round, Browning and Fornaroli were tied on points at the top of the championship – with Browning ahead by virtue of having won a race – both five points ahead of Minì.

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on 22 March 2024, at 14:00 local time (UTC+11).

Pos.	No.	Driver	Entrant	Time/Gap	Grid SR	Grid FR
1	4	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident	1:33.044	12	1
2	2	Gabriele Minì	Prema Racing	+0.019	11	2
3	1	Dino Beganovic	Prema Racing	+0.300	10	3
4	27	Nikita Bedrin[a]	PHM AIX Racing	+0.345	8	4
5	14	Luke Browning	Hitech Pulse-Eight	+0.391	7	5
6	12	Mari Boya	Campos Racing	+0.527	6	6
7	25	Nikola Tsolov	ART Grand Prix	+0.540	91	7
8	3	Arvid Lindblad	Prema Racing	+0.672	5	8
9	10	Oliver Goethe	Campos Racing	+0.723	4	9
10	23	Christian Mansell	ART Grand Prix	+0.925	3	10
11	15	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech Pulse-Eight	+1.051	2	11
12	24	Laurens van Hoepen	ART Grand Prix	+1.064	1	12
13	28	Joshua Dufek	PHM AIX Racing	+1.243	13	13
14	17	Charlie Wurz	Jenzer Motorsport	+1.268	14	14
15	11	Sebastián Montoya	Campos Racing	+1.279	15	15
16	20	Noel León	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1.314	16	16
17	9	Alex Dunne	MP Motorsport	+1.377	17	17
18	6	Santiago Ramos	Trident	+1.420	18	18
19	8	Kacper Sztuka	MP Motorsport	+1.441	19	19
20	18	Max Esterson	Jenzer Motorsport	+1.443	20	20
21	19	Matías Zagazeta	Jenzer Motorsport	+1.473	21	21
22	7	Tim Tramnitz	MP Motorsport	+1.483	22	22
23	29	Callum Voisin	Rodin Motorsport	+1.729	23	23
24	26	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	PHM AIX Racing	+1.821	24	24
25	21	Sophia Flörsch	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1.858	25	25
26	5	Sami Meguetounif	Trident	+2.018	26	26
27	30	Piotr Wiśnicki	Rodin Motorsport	+2.369	27	27
28	16	Cian Shields	Hitech Pulse-Eight	+2.475	28	28
29	31	Joseph Loake	Rodin Motorsport	+2.656	29	29
30	22	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort Racing	+3.755	30	30
107% time: 1:39.557 (+6.513)
Source:[2][3][4]

Notes

• ^1 – Nikola Tsolov received a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Alex Dunne during the weekend's free practice session.^[5]

Sprint race

The sprint race was held on 23 March 2024, at 11:15 local time (UTC+11).

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Gap	Grid	Pts.
1	15	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech Pulse-Eight	20	35:32.870	2	10
2	3	Arvid Lindblad	Prema Racing	20	+1.673	5	9
3	24	Laurens van Hoepen	ART Grand Prix	20	+1.958	1	8
4	12	Mari Boya	Campos Racing	20	+3.165	6	7
5	10	Oliver Goethe	Campos Racing	20	+4.152	4	6
6	2	Gabriele Minì	Prema Racing	20	+5.158	11	5
7	9	Alex Dunne	MP Motorsport	20	+6.485	17	4
8	11	Sebastián Montoya	Campos Racing	20	+7.122	15	3
9	4	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident	20	+7.311	12	2
10	23	Christian Mansell	ART Grand Prix	20	+7.747	3	1
11	17	Charlie Wurz	Jenzer Motorsport	20	+8.234	14
12	7	Tim Tramnitz	MP Motorsport	20	+8.628	22
13	1	Dino Beganovic	Prema Racing	20	+9.7351	10
14	31	Joseph Loake	Rodin Motorsport	20	+10.834	29
15	19	Matías Zagazeta	Jenzer Motorsport	20	+11.288	21
16	8	Kacper Sztuka	MP Motorsport	20	+11.967	19
17	5	Sami Meguetounif	Trident	20	+13.233	26
18	29	Callum Voisin	Rodin Motorsport	20	+13.744	23
19	21	Sophia Flörsch	Van Amersfoort Racing	20	+14.623	25
20	25	Nikola Tsolov	ART Grand Prix	20	+15.214	9
21	27	Nikita Bedrin	PHM AIX Racing	20	+15.4742	8
22	28	Joshua Dufek	PHM AIX Racing	20	+15.640	13
23	30	Piotr Wiśnicki	Rodin Motorsport	20	+16.893	27
24	6	Santiago Ramos	Trident	20	+17.443	18
25	16	Cian Shields	Hitech Pulse-Eight	20	+18.250	28
26	18	Max Esterson	Jenzer Motorsport	20	+19.0953	20
27	22	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort Racing	20	+27.3474	30
28	14	Luke Browning	Hitech Pulse-Eight	19	+1 lap	7
DNF	26	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	PHM AIX Racing	13	Collision	24
DNF	20	Noel León	Van Amersfoort Racing	12	Driveshaft	16
Fastest lap set by Luke Browning: 1:36.186 (lap 2)
Source:[6]

Notes:

• ^1 – Dino Beganovic originally finished sixth, but was later given a five-second time penalty for forcing Sebastián Montoya off the track, subsequently dropping him down to thirteenth.^[7]
• ^2 – Nikita Bedrin originally finished eighth, but later received a ten-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, dropping him down to P21 in the final classification.^[7]
• ^3 – Max Esterson was given a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits multiple times, dropping him down from P19 to P26.^[7]
• ^4 – Tommy Smith was given a ten-second time penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, dropping him down from P25 to P27.^[7]

Feature race

The feature race was held on 24 March 2024, at 9:05 local time (UTC+11).

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Gap	Grid	Pts.
1	1	Dino Beganovic	Prema Racing	23	41:23.816	2	25 (1)
2	4	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident	23	+1.682	1	18 (2)
3	2	Gabriele Minì	Prema Racing	23	+3.221	3	15
4	14	Luke Browning	Hitech Pulse-Eight	23	+4.050	5	12
5	17	Charlie Wurz	Jenzer Motorsport	23	+16.958	14	10
6	11	Sebastián Montoya	Campos Racing	23	+21.230	15	8
7	12	Mari Boya	Campos Racing	23	+21.492	6	6
8	27	Nikita Bedrin	PHM AIX Racing	23	+25.610	4	4
9	10	Oliver Goethe	Campos Racing	23	+26.530	9	2
10	23	Christian Mansell	ART Grand Prix	23	+26.785	10	1
11	3	Arvid Lindblad	Prema Racing	23	+27.009	8
12	5	Sami Meguetounif	Trident	23	+29.437	26
13	24	Laurens van Hoepen	ART Grand Prix	23	+29.512	12
14	18	Max Esterson	Jenzer Motorsport	23	+30.441	20
15	7	Tim Tramnitz	MP Motorsport	23	+33.023	22
16	9	Alex Dunne	MP Motorsport	23	+33.577	17
17	19	Matías Zagazeta	Jenzer Motorsport	23	+34.067	21
18	8	Kacper Sztuka	MP Motorsport	23	+37.812	19
19	25	Nikola Tsolov	ART Grand Prix	23	+38.222	7
20	16	Cian Shields	Hitech Pulse-Eight	23	+42.693	28
21	29	Callum Voisin	Rodin Motorsport	23	+44.080	23
22	28	Joshua Dufek	PHM AIX Racing	23	+52.748	13
23	30	Piotr Wiśnicki	Rodin Motorsport	23	+1:01.595	27
24	6	Santiago Ramos	Trident	23	+1:09.926	18
25	20	Noel León	Van Amersfoort Racing	23	+1:10.635	16
26	15	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech Pulse-Eight	23	+1:14.235	11
DNF	21	Sophia Flörsch	Van Amersfoort Racing	1	Collision damage	25
DNF	22	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort Racing	0	Collision	30
DNF	31	Joseph Loake	Rodin Motorsport	0	Collision	29
DNF	26	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	PHM AIX Racing	0	Collision damage	24
Fastest lap set by Dino Beganovic: 1:35.588 (lap 7)
Source:[8]

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Luke Browning 37 2 2 Leonardo Fornaroli 37 4 3 Gabriele Minì 32 11 4 Dino Beganovic 28 5 Arvid Lindblad 23

Teams' Championship standings Pos. Team Points 2 1 Prema Racing 83 1 2 Trident 60 1 3 Hitech Pulse-Eight 47 2 4 ART Grand Prix 46 1 5 Campos Racing 39

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2024 Australian Grand Prix
• 2024 Melbourne Formula 2 round

Notes

1. Bedrin is a Russian driver competing under an Italian licence.^[1]