Vesti holds on before rain stops play in Austria

FIA F3 Austria - Race Results (1)

Frederik Vesti secured his first FIA Formula 3 victory at the Red Bull Ring as he held his nerve in worsening conditions before the race was stopped at half distance.

The Dane - one of the favourites for this year's F3 title - began from pole position, inherited from Prema team-mate Logan Sargeant getting penalised down to third place, and got the drag up the hill into turn one to assume the lead in the wet conditions.

From here the race passed off without too much incident despite the tricky weather and the lack of visibility, with Vesti making the most of his clear track ahead to control the pace over Lirim Zendeli and David Beckmann.

However, with rain getting heavy when the first safety car was called to clear Clement Novalak’s stricken Carlin car at the final corner, by the time they restarted on lap 12 of 24 the weather had worsened to the extent the red flag was shown.

With the decision taken not to restart the race, the result was called at the time of the stoppage with Vesti classified as the winner for Prema, ahead of Zendeli and Beckmann in the Trident cars.

Olli Caldwell was one of the drivers to make good gains from his starting position to finish a fine fourth - in so doing making it three Tridents in the top four - ahead of Oscar Piastri – race winner in the dry a week ago – Richard Verschoor, Sargeant and Liam Lawson. Theo Pourchaire and Jake Hughes completed the top ten positions.