After qualifying well, Dino was unable to make it to the podium in Spielberg, but points in both races promote him to second in the standings.
Even if a podium proved to be out of reach in Spielberg this weekend, the fifth round of the Formula 3 season produced plenty of positives for Dino Beganovic. An eighth and a fifth place finish sees the Ferrari Driver Academy driver move up to second in the championship on 75 points. “Overall, it was a good weekend,” commented Dino. “Qualifying went well and the Sprint Race in the wet threw up some positives. We were lacking something in the Feature Race, I pushed too much in the early stages to try and build the gap so those behind wouldn’t be able to use DRS and that led to faster tyre degradation than expected in the final laps. But we still scored plenty of points for the championship and I can’t wait to be back on track again next weekend in Silverstone.”
Sprint Race. With the reverse grid regulation for the top 12 qualifiers, Dino started the first race from 11th. The race got underway after two laps behind the Safety Car to assess the track conditions in the rain that had been falling since early morning. Immediately after the start, Dino and another driver collided which dropped him to 15th, but his car was undamaged and he fought his way back to eighth, with a very strong pace in the tricky conditions. “A shame about the contact at the start,” said Dino. “Our pace in the wet was competitive and I managed to have a good run up the order. Overall, I think it was a good race.”
Feature Race. Nothing much changed in the early stages of the main race of the Austrian weekend. Beganovic started second and stayed in that position until lap 7 when he got past Gregoire Saucy to take the lead and set the race fastest lap. At half distance, Dino and Gabriel Bortoleto began a long duel, which saw the Swede lose the lead on lap 13, as his tyres degraded gradually, making the final stages rather difficult. But Beganovic knuckled down to finish fifth and move up to second place in the championship.