Martinius Stenshorne claims Hitech’s first F3 victory of the season
Round 4 - Monaco - Report
Hitech TGR’s F3 fortunes took a dramatic turn for the better this weekend in Monaco, as Martinius Stenshorne claimed victory in Saturday’s Sprint Race – the team’s first win of this F3 season, and for the Norwegian, his second in the series.
Round 4 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, the second event of the season’s triple-header, got off to a more positive start for all three drivers than in recent races. In Imola one week earlier, the team had struggled to unlock clear performance gains, but moving into Monaco it was a different story entirely.
In Practice on Thursday there was already cause for optimism when Martinius Stenshorne concluded the opening session with P7. Gerrard Xie, embarking on his first experience of the Monte Carlo street circuit, impressed with P15, while Joshua Dufek was 17th.
Qualifying was more typically tricky, even with the split sessions designed to make the session more manageable for the field of 30 drivers. Martinius’ lap put him on the front row in P2 for the start of the reverse grid Sprint Race, handing him a golden opportunity to take a podium.
Off the start, pole-sitter Giusti lost position and Martinius seized the advantage. He kept his head and built a gap to the advancing pack whilst being careful to manage his tyres, before going on to secure a spectacular lights-to-flag victory.
Martinius Stenshorne:
“It feels good. It was a bit difficult in Qualifying we had potential for more but we had a bit of traffic on the last lap, but that’s what made us start from P2 today and allowed us to take the win.”
Martinius continued:
“I’m extremely happy. Big thanks to Hitech for helping me and improving the car, so big thanks to them.”
Gerrard Xie, who started from P27, gained eight places in the Sprint to finish P19, while Josh Dufek moved up from P16 to 14th place.
On Sunday, Martinius lined up on the fifth row of the grid in tenth and delivered another solid race to finish in P8, securing more valuable points to boost his championship position. He is now seventh in the Driver Standings.
Joshua gained four places in the Feature Race, finishing in 12th. He was fighting for a place in the points in the closing stages of the race but his car was struck by a loose wheel from another car, which caused him to drop back. Gerrard was the big mover of the day, once again making up eight places.
The team now head to Barcelona for the third and final event of the triple-header at the Circuit de Catalunya on 30 June-1 May.
Results
Qualifying
- Martinius Stenshorne - 2nd
- Joshua Dufek - 16th
- Gerrard Xie - 27th
Sprint Race
- Martinius Stenshorne - Winner
- Joshua Dufek - 14th
- Gerrard Xie - 19th
Feature Race
- Martinius Stenshorne - 8th
- Joshua Dufek - 12th
- Gerrard Xie - 19th