Colombo dominates first F3 sprint race at Spa in wet conditions

Torrential rainfall led to a delayed start in Belgium, with the race director opting for two formation laps before returning to the pits to wait for conditions to improve.

Once the rain stopped, the race got underway with three laps behind the Safety Car.

Colombo led the pack away on Lap 4 and didn’t look under any threat for the victory once the race started.

The Italian built a three-second lead over Hitech’s Jak Crawford after the first proper lap of racing.

Colombo dominated the rest of the race to take his maiden victory over Crawford by 13.4s. 

It’s redemption for Colombo after he took the win on track in Hungary’s first sprint race, but was hit with a post-race penalty for falling too far behind the Safety Car. 

Crawford’s P2 at Spa is his first podium in the series, while Roman Stanek enjoyed a fine race to finish third. 

Outside of the podium, there was a chaotic fight for fourth. 

Frederik Vesti ultimately came out on top after overtaking David Schumacher late on.

Caio Collet showed impressive speed in the wet conditions and was favourite to take fourth off Vesti until he picked up a five-second time penalty for overtaking Schumacher and Vesti off the track. 

Collet’s penalty dropped him to ninth in the final classification, with Victor Martins, Johnathan Hoggard, Clement Novalak and Logan Sargeant finishing ahead.

Aleksandr Smolyar finished tenth ahead of Schumacher, who struggled for pace in the closing laps.

Jack Doohan secured the reverse grid pole for the second sprint race this afternoon and will look to win Sunday’s feature race from pole after taking top spot in Friday’s qualifying session.

Prema duo Arthur Leclerc and Dennis Hauger failed to make any progress from their grid positions as they finished 13th and 14th.

Click here for the full FIA Formula 3 race results from the first sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps