Austria

Noah Strømsted timed his charge to perfection at the Red Bull Ring to win the Formula 3 Feature Race in Spielberg — his first Feature victory — heading home championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu and Trident teammate Freddie Slater in a frantic, two-interruption thriller that was only settled in the final corners.

Pole-sitter Hiyu Yamakoshi led the field away, but it was Ugochukwu who pounced first, nailing the exit of Turn 1 to take the lead off the line. The race was neutralised on lap 3 when Maciej Gladysz and Yevan David made contact off-track at Turn 1, bringing out the Safety Car with both out on the spot. At the restart Slater was electric, going around the outside of Strømsted at Turn 3 and slicing past Yamakoshi at Turn 4 to jump up to second.

Order had barely returned when a Virtual Safety Car appeared on lap 7, this time after Woohyun Shin and Fernando Barrichello collided and stopped on track. From the green the lead became a hot potato: Slater took the lead from Ugochukwu at Turn 3 on lap 9, then Yamakoshi dived inside Ugochukwu for second on lap 11. Behind the leaders, Mattia Colnaghi picked up a five-second penalty for a VSC infringement.

The top four — Slater, Yamakoshi, Ugochukwu and Strømsted — broke clear and traded blows lap after lap. Ugochukwu leaned on Slater relentlessly, and on lap 21 the Trident driver put two wheels in the gravel but defended brilliantly to keep him behind; even with front-wing damage, Ugochukwu kept coming. Strømsted bided his time and struck on lap 24, taking the lead from Slater into Turn 4 and never looking back. The drama ran to the flag: Pedro Clerot went around the outside at Turn 6 to grab fourth, and on the final lap Ugochukwu and Slater ran side-by-side through Turns 4 and 6, the Campos man emerging with second.

Strømsted won from Ugochukwu (+1.373) and Slater (+2.043) to complete a Trident 1-3, with Clerot fourth ahead of Jin Nakamura, Taito Kato, Tuukka Taponen, a recovering Yamakoshi (down from pole to eighth), Nicola Lacorte and Kanato Le. In the championship Ugochukwu extends his lead to 78 points over Slater (62) and Théophile Naël (52), while Strømsted's maiden win lifts him to sixth. Formula 3 returns next time out at Silverstone.