On the sidelines of the FORMULA 1 race – Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024, three regional and international championships were launched, as the excitement continued within these supporting races, most notably the first and opening round of the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships, and the fifth round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East Championship.
Driver Luke Bruning led his Hitech Pulse Eight team to victory in the main race of the first round of the FIA Formula 3 World Championship, which was held on the closing day of the 2024 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
Browning started on the front row alongside Prema Racing’s Dino Pejanovic, taking advantage of a slow start from the pole-sitter, Browning took advantage of the race and took the lead.
The British driver maintained his strong speed, finishing the race in 41 minutes and 08.012 seconds, achieving his first victory in a major Formula 3 race this season.
ERT driver Christian Mansell came in second place, 1.264 seconds behind, while MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz topped the final step of the podium by 2.432 seconds.
Trident’s Sami Mikentonev, Trident’s Santiago Ramos and Prema’s Gabriele Mini finished fourth through sixth respectively, while completing the top ten and points winners were Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli, sprint race winner Arvin Lindblad of Prema, MP’s Alexander Dunne and Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe. .
The Formula 3 season continues later this month with round two in Melbourne from March 22-24.
In the other competition, Zain Maloney achieved a double victory in the first round of the Formula 2 season, within the support races of the 2024 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
Maloney controlled the race from start to finish, thanks to the wonderful start that put him in the lead early.
Maloney had previously won the sprint race after a similar scenario in which the brilliant driver was able to advance from sixth to second.
The Rodin Motorsport driver was one of the few drivers who started the race on soft tires, which gave him an advantage in starting and moving from third to first place and ahead of driver Isaac Hadger.
Rookie driver Gabriel Botolito was slow in starting at the first turn, then locked the brakes, which led to him colliding with a roadster and his car spinning, before he was involved in an accident with driver Enzo Fittipaldi, which led to the safety car being brought out.
Driver Pepe Marti achieved second place after he also started on soft tires and moved from eleventh to fifth place during the start, then to third place in the middle of the race, and after a few laps he rose to second place, ahead of O’Sullivan.
Despite starting on soft tyres, Maloney and Marty were among the drivers who pitted on lap 18 of 32, joining O’Sullivan as he switched to soft tires three laps from the end.
Paul Aaron started from sixth place after the safety car came out, but he was fastest at the end of the race on soft tyres. Hitech driver Marti continued to excel, passing O’Sullivan but was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He then succeeded in building a sufficient gap to finish the race on the podium, 0.7 seconds behind O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan finished fourth, 0.068 seconds behind Bortoletto, who entered with Maloney and Marti on soft tires but had to serve a ten-second penalty for contact with Hadjar at the start and finished fifth.
For his part, Dutch driver Robert de Haan won the main race of the fifth round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East, held as part of the support races for the 2024 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Central Europe Racing driver finished the 11-lap race in 22 minutes and 41.855 seconds, ahead of British BWT Junior driver Harry King, who finished second by 1.678 seconds, while German driver Jani Styak rose to the podium by finishing third in the race, with a difference of 8.344 seconds. A second from first place.
Harry Jones from Australia ranked fourth overall, and Theo Overhaus from Germany came in fifth place.
All top five are competing in the Pro category. In the ProAm category, German Soren Spring achieved first place, narrowly ahead of the Saudi duo Khaled Al-Ahmadi and Saud Al Saud. Saif Al Ameri from the United Arab Emirates won the Am category, while Sebastian Gorga from Italy came in second and Sheikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa was also on the podium in the category in third. The Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East now heads to the tournament final in Jeddah next weekend.
