Hughes claims first F3 win in over a year at Barcelona

Jake Hughes passed Logan Sargeant to claim his first FIA Formula 3 victory in over a year at the opening race in Barcelona.

The HWA Racelab driver joined polesitter Sargeant on the front-row of the grid and shadowed the Prema driver throughout the early stages, before making a move for the lead on Lap 7.

Hughes got a strong run along the main start-finish straight at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and swept around the outside of Sargeant at Turn 1 with the help of DRS to grab first place.

The 26-year-old Briton wasted no time pulling clear of Sargeant and the chasing pack and went on to seal his first victory of the 2020 season, marking his first triumph in the series since last year’s Red Bull Ring round.

Hughes dedicated HWA Racelab’s maiden win of the campaign to his former GP3 teammate Anthoine Hubert, who was killed in an accident during an FIA Formula 2 race at Spa-Francorchamps nearly a year ago.

After a few half-attempts, Hitech’s Liam Lawson pulled off a near identical move to the one Hughes managed on Sargeant to snatch second place at Turn 1 with three laps to go.

Sargeant completed the podium in third place to further extend his championship lead over Prema teammate and nearest rival Oscar Piastri.

Clement Novalak claimed a strong fourth for Carlin, ahead of F3 frontrunner David Beckmann and Piastri, who was left to rue a costly error when he ran wide at the final corner at a Safety Car restart and conceded two positions to fall to sixth.

The Australian surrendered his early championship advantage during a difficult Silverstone round last time out and has now fallen 12 points behind Sargeant in the drivers’ standings.

ART Grand Prix driver Theo Pourchaire was seventh, ahead of Alex Peroni’s Campos and MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor, while Matteo Nannini scored his first point of the season for Jenzer.

In rounding out the top-10, the Italian has also claimed reverse grid pole position for the second FIA F3 race at Barcelona on Sunday.

FULL FIA FORMULA 3 RACE 1 RESULTS FROM THE CIRCUIT DE BARCELONA-CATALUNYA.