Liam Lawson braves it out for F3 win in Austria

FIA F3 Austria – Race Results (2)

Liam Lawson has taken his maiden FIA Formula 3 Championship victory with a commanding performance in the reverse grid sprint race at the Red Bull Ring, holding his nerve after a late safety car period.

A hard-fought success for the New Zealander, Lawson started fifth but quickly made gains into the top three off the startline behind reverse grid pole sitter Clement Novalak and David Beckmann.

With Beckmann getting the run on Novalak on lap four, the Briton attempted to get his own back the following lap but in doing so allowed the close-following Lawson through into second place.

From here Lawson stalked Beckmann before slipstreaming past under DRS on the run to turn four on lap seven, assuming a lead he’d retain to the chequered flag.

With Richard Verschoor taking up the fight on lap 13 when he overtook for second on lap 13, the Dutchman looked to have a shot at victory when a late safety car bunched the field up with just two laps remaining.

However, Red Bull junior Lawson would nail his restart and protect his advantage to the finish line to collect victory for the Hitech Grand Prix team.

Macau GP winner Verschoor secured second place with 2019 BRDC F3 champion Novalak holding on for the podium on his first weekend of F3 racing for Carlin.

Beckmann settled for fourth place after his early rally, holding off Lirim Zendeli and Frederik Vesti, with Alex Smolyar – who started on the front row – resisted the race long attentions of round one winner Oscar Piastri.

Elsewhere, there was disappointment for two of Saturday’s podium winners with Logan Sargeant slowed by an early puncture, while technical issues eliminated Alex Peroni.