The sixth round of the FIA F3 Championship takes place this weekend in Spielberg, Austria.
From today until next Sunday, the FIA F3 Championship resumes its schedule for the sixth round of the competition. Drivers and teams have arrived at the Red Bull Ring Circuit in Spielberg, Austria, for the races that effectively open a sequence of four race weekends until the end of July.
Leading the Championship with 92 points is the Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto, representing Americanet and KTF Sports. He arrived very excited at the Austrian circuit. Not content with being in first place in the standings, the 18-year-old has been intensely preparing in recent weeks and believes he is ready to fight for victories in this round.
“I love this circuit here at Red Bull Ring. The track is very fast, and in previous years, racing for FRECA, I was always among the fastest. In recent weeks, I trained a lot on the simulator, both with the team’s simulator and my personal one. Personally, I trained a lot on the physical side, and I feel truly prepared for the start of this marathon of races we will have in the coming weeks,” commented the young driver from São Paulo.
The Red Bull Ring circuit is one of the fastest of the season. Located in a beautiful mountainous region, nearly 900 meters above sea level, the track measures 4,318 meters in length, with only 10 corners and three long full-throttle sections. The current F3 record is held by Mexican driver Sebastián Fernandez, established in 2020, with a time of 1m19s429.
BORTOLETO STARTED ACTIVITIES IN THE LEAD
As he projected throughout his preparation for the weekend, Gabriel Bortoleto took to the track in this morning’s free practice eager to find the best setup for his car, aiming for the qualifying session that would take place a few hours later. With full support from his engineering team, as well as the dedicated work of the Trident team mechanics, the driver of car #5 managed to extract the best performance from his equipment, setting the fastest lap time with 1m19s410, unofficially breaking the previous circuit record by 19 milliseconds.
In the qualifying session, which took place in the mid-morning of Friday, Gabriel also performed well. Facing a difficult track position, where all competitors sought a better drafting situation, Bortoleto set a time of 1m20s474, securing the third place on the grid for the Feature Race, to be held on Sunday morning. For the Sprint Race, which is always held on Saturday and features an inversion of the top 12 positions in the standings, Gabriel will start from the fifth row, in the tenth position.
Check below the schedule of the races that will be broadcasted live on BandSports.
Saturday (July 1st)
05:00 – 05:30 – Sprint Race
Sunday (July 2nd)
03:30 – 04:10 – Feature Race
Pictures: KTF Sports | James Gasperotti
Press office of KTF Sports
Responsible journalist: Flávio Quick