Formula 3: Beganovic on the podium

Dino Beganovic came away from the Hungaroring with a third and a ninth place, closing the gap to the series leader.

Maranello, 22 July 2024 – Dino Beganovic had to dig deep to turn his weekend around after a difficult start to the eighth round of the Formula 3 championship. The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy student came away from the Hungaroring with a third place finish in the Sprint race followed by a ninth in the Feature race. He therefore picked up 17 points and is sixth in the standings, 29 points off the leader.

Qualifying. Beganovic was fourth fastest after his first qualifying run and was happy with the car. However, on his second run, he came up behind a group of slow-moving cars at the three final corners and was unable to improve his time. On his last set of tyres, he was quickest in the first sector, but then disaster struck as the session was red flagged because of an accident and the session did not resume. It was really bad luck, relegating the Swede to 14^th place from his first run. Penalties for two drivers ahead of him promoted to Dino to twelfth, which with the reversed grid meant he started the Sprint from pole.

Sprint Race. Beganovic made the most of pole to lead off the line, but at turn 2, he had to give best to Nikita Bedrin, which led to a long duel between them. It came to a head on lap 10 as Beganovic tried out to out-brake his rival into turn 2, but he ended up going off the track. He rejoined third, trying to attack Tasanapol Inthrapuvasak in the closing stages but the chequered flag came too soon for any further progress up the order. “I can’t say I’m happy with third given that I started from pole,” admitted Beganovic. “Unfortunately, on the first lap I lost a place to Bedrin but I concentrated and fought to get back in the lead. As I made my move I went over the inside kerb at turn 2 and lost the car. I don’t regret trying as I felt I could fight for the win and I did all I could.” Apart from that, the points for third are still worth having for the championship.”

Feature Race. A strong opening lap saw Beganovic go from 12^th to ninth place and that’s where he stayed for all 23 laps to the chequered flag, managing his tyres in the closing stages. “A difficult race,” explained Dino. “We had made some changes to the set-up after the Sprint, but the race was tough because our pace turned out not to be that strong. Given the situation, I tried to make it into the points and in tat respect, the Safety Car at the end worked in my favour. We must now focus on next weekend at the Spa circuit, because this weekend confirmed the trend established in recent races.”