Another charge up the field for Martinius in Bahrain

Martinius Stenshorne yet again put in a strong drive as he raced from P21 on the grid to P14 at the close of the FIA Formula 3 Championship Feature Race at the Bahrain International Circuit today. After a strong Sprint race, in which he made up 11 places at the flag fall, the Norwegian aimed to replicate his form yet again in today’s longer Feature Race.

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Lining up P21 for the 22 lap race, the 18-year-old Hitech Pulse Eight driver again stayed clear of start incidents, which saw polesitter Dino Beganovic creep off the line, however a run into the gravel on the second turn did cause him to lose some positions. Martinius then got stuck into the tight midfield battles and used all the track to move into P17 by the end of lap 6. Tucked in behind the Jenzer battle of Charlie Wurz and Maxwell Esterson he bided his time until lap 8 when he made a textbook overtake round the outside of Turn 4 to pass Esterson and move into P16.

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Sixteenth became P15 at the end of lap 12 when he passed Nikita Bedrin, and then P14 when he moved past Wurz. With a five second gap to Noel Leon he immediately put the hammer down to close to within half a second of the Mexican with just three laps remaining. Two laps from the end Martinius was within striking distance, however with the charging Beganovic on new tyres behind him had to look into the mirrors to keep position.

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Some strong defence ensued from Martinius, but Beganovic moved past on the last lap. Martinius finished his first-ever F3 feature race in 14th overall, seven positions up on his starting position and within touching distance of the top ten.

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