Stenshorne adds six points in Sakhir Sprint

The Norwegian lined up alongside his pole-sitting teammate Joshua Dufek, who made a terrific getaway and managed to keep hold of the lead for the opening lap while Martinius dropped to third place at Turn 4 when Slater got ahead.

On Lap 2, Dufek also fell prey to the advancing Slater and Martinius lost a further place to fourth, the Hitech TGR duo forced to hold position during an ensuing five-lap Safety Car period.

The battles intensified on Lap 9 when Joshua, Martinius and Taponen almost went three-wide into Turn 4. The McLaren junior briefly seized the advantage before succumbing to Taponen and dropping back into P4, then lost position after fighting side-by-side with Giusti which allowed Voisin to make a move past the pair at Turn 11.

On Lap 15 of 19, the Safety Car was deployed after Joshua was struck by Domingues, causing both drivers to stop by the side of the road, bringing a frustrating end to a race that had held so much promise for the Austrian driver.

Rookie Gerrard Xie had a strong Sprint from 26^th, finishing in P20 in only his third Formula 3 race.

Sunday’s Feature Race was an altogether tougher challenge for all three drivers, who were unable to realise the progress made at the recent Bahrain test. Martinius, Josh and Gerrard started from 11^th, 12^th and 25^th on the Grid respectively and did not have the pace to take the fight to the cars ahead, missing out on the points placings the team had in their sights after a strong qualifying performance on Friday. The trio were disappointed to finish 18^th, 22^nd and 26^th respectively.

The championship now has a break before heading back to Europe for Round 3 of the 2025 season in Imola from 16-18 May.