Doohan beats Martins to Belgium F3 feature race victory

Starting from pole position, Doohan led from the front after several formation laps behind the Safety Car.

Martins had the advantage in the early laps, remaining within a second of Doohan.

It wasn’t until Lap 5 when Martins decided to make a move, as the pair ran side-by-side through Bruxelles and into Turn 11.

The Frenchman got through on the outside of Pouhon but exceeded track limits by doing so, meaning he was likely to pick up a five-second time penalty from the stewards.

Martins relinquished the lead into Bruxelles a lap later and from then on, he didn’t get another chance to challenge Doohan for the victory.

Doohan took the win at Spa by 2.0s as he continued to reduce Dennis Hauger’s lead at the top of the championship.

Starting from 14th on the grid, Hauger made decent progress in the early phase of the race.

After dispatching his teammate Arthur Leclerc, Hauger made light work of Jak Crawford into Les Combes on Lap 3.

A lap later he was past Roman Stanek and on Lap 5, he overtook Johnathan Hoggard into Les Combes for ninth. 

His progress was thwarted by  David Schumacher, having to wait until Lap 10 to make the move for eighth - where he ultimately finished.

The top four finished where they started - Doohan ahead of Martins, Aleksandr Smolyar and Caio Collet.

Frederik Vesti got past Logan Sargeant on the penultimate lap for sixth, with Hauger finishing just behind.

David Schumacher and Arthur Leclerc rounded out the top ten at Spa.

Next up for the F3 teams is a trip to Zandvoort next weekend as a support race for F1’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Doohan has cut Hauger’s lead in the championship from 63 to 25 points in Belgium so it’s all to play for in the race for the title.

Click here for the full FIA Formula 3 feature race results from Spa-Francorchamps.