Doohan beats Hauger to wet Formula 3 feature race victory at Paul Ricard

The heavens opened up in the minutes leading up to the race meaning it was a wet start to the race. 

Hauger got the best start possible, powering past pole-sitter Frederik Vesti into the lead.

The Prema driver looked at home in the wet conditions, quickly establishing a 3.2s lead over Vesti in second.

It wasn’t Vesti who Hauger had to look out for as Doohan began to show impressive pace in the Trident, overtaking Victor Martins for third into Turn 1 on Lap 7.

A mistake from Vesti into Turn 3 on Lap 10 allowed Doohan to move up to second and have a clear run at Hauger, who continued to lead the race.

As the track started to dry up, the advantage swung in Doohan’s favour. 

On Lap 14, Doohan tried to get past Hauger into the final corner, with the pair going side-by-side down the start-finish straight.

The Australian ultimately came out on top with a bold move around outside of Turn 1.

Doohan took the chequered flag by 1.5s ahead of Haguer, with Caio Collet in third, having overtaken teammate Martins into the final corner in the closing laps.

Martins held onto fourth ahead of the second Trident of Clement Novalak.

Novalak looked like he had the pace to challenge for the win at one point, as he looked to overtake Vesti into Turn 1 on Lap 6.

Vesti defended the position, forcing Novalak wide which allowed Martins and Doohan to get past.

The Mercedes F1 junior ultimately finished sixth ahead Ayumu Iwasa and Aleksandr Smolyar.

Juan Manuel Correa continued his encouraging weekend with ninth, while 16-year-old Jak Crawford rounded out the top ten.

Having started 30th, Arthur Leclerc recovered to finish 13th, behind Enzo Fittipaldi and Calan Williams.

Click here for the full FIA Formula 3 feature race results.