Formula 3: Beganovic on the podium in Barcelona

Dino Beganovic finished third in the Feature Race at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, having performed well all weekend. After four rounds, he lies third in the championship.

There was a question mark over what to expect from Dino Beganovic this weekend, as his previous outings at the Spanish track had not been particularly outstanding. “I want to shake off the jinx,” he said going into the fourth round of the season and by the end of Sunday, he had achieved that. Beganovic qualified fourth and finished third in the Feature Race. The points scored mean he is now up to third in the standings on 61 points. “I’m very happy with this performance after some bad luck led to my retirement in the Sprint,” commented Beganovic. “It’s always fantastic to get on the podium and the team did a great job. I’m also happy that this Barcelona podium follows on from my second place in Monaco. It’s my third top-3 finish, all of them in the Feature race. We will continue to work for the upcoming races, knowing that we are on the right road.”

Feature Race. In the main race, Dino got a clean start from fourth, but the Safety Car came out on lap 2, as a car was stopped on track, before resuming after three laps at a brisk pace which raised concerns about tyre wear. In the second part of the race, Beganovic was able to get past Taylor Barnard for third place and immediately built up a big enough gap so that his pursuers could not use DRS. In the closing stages, Dino managed his race to secure his third podium finish of the season.

Sprint Race. On Saturday, things had not gone so well in the Sprint race. Beganovic started from ninth in a race that saw few changes of position. Then, on lap 15, Dino was hit by Gregoire Saucy, who was penalised for this after the race. Beganovic picked up a puncture which led to him going off the track and retiring. “The first part of the race was good,” commented Dino. “The aim was to look after the tyres as much as possible, to be able to push in the final laps, when usually the race pace slows. With ten laps to go things got more lively and I managed to make up a few places before the collision with Saucy. I ended up off the track and that was my race over.” Overall, it was a positive weekend, with the next round taking place in Austria in early July.