American Ugo Ugochukwu took his maiden F3 win in superb type in a Feature Race that didn’t characteristic Aussie James Wharton or Kiwi Louis Sharp.
Having received the Formula Regional Championship in New Zealand lately, Ugochukwu carried on his Trans-Tasman love affair by racing his option to victory within the a franetic Albert Park Feature.
His strikes ensured Freddie Slater needed to accept second, whereas Taito Kato joined them on the rostrum after Theophile Nael suffered a penalty.
On the eve of the race, Prema introduced that tangling teammates Wharton and Sharp had withdrawn from the rest of the weekend following their controversial Sprint Race conflict.
As a outcome, Heuzenroder carried the hopes of the house crowd and did a powerful job, ending a good 17th, contemplating he began 24th and is only a fill-in.
Freddie Slater received a powerful launch and instantly challenged Nael, however he held on amid the squeeze into Turn 1, solely to later obtain a 5s penalty for transferring within the
However, Ugochukwu was flying and used DRS to steal second from Slater at Turn 9.
The Campos Racing American star wanted simply two laps to catch Nael and produce a battle for the lead.
Once once more Turn 9 was Ugochukwu’s goal of alternative and he repeated the transfer to snare the lead.
Further again there was some intense racing to get into the highest 5.
Kato made a sweeping transfer across the outdoors of Colnaghi at Turn 9, just for the latter to battle again by performing a synchronised dive with Stormsted at Turn 11.
Badoer within the thick of the battle, swapping stints in fifth with Larcorte.
However, the son of former Ferrari F1 driver threw away his good work with a spin on the remaining nook.
At the identical second, a Safety Car was required because of Bhirombakdi beaching it within the Turn 12 gravel.
At the restart, Ugochukwu established his dominance over Narl and Slater, capturing 5s clear, whereas Giusti misplaced contact with high 10 by spearing off at Turn 3. Garfias additionally had an off-track second at Turn 12.
The battle for third exploded by Lap 15 because the charging Lacorte was flying and caught and handed Slater with a sensible dive at Turn 11.
Two laps later, Gladysz tried to carry out the identical transfer on Slater, nevertheless it was Stromsted who made probably the most floor and pounced on the exit to safe fifth.
Stromsted and Lacorte carried on battling at Turn 11, however an especially aggressive defence by the latter at nook exit left the #29 with vital entrance wing injury as he dropped to the again of the highest 10.
To make issues worse for the broken Lacorte, he additionally obtained a 5s penalty for transferring earlier than the beginning sign.
However, Stromsted was slapped with a 10s penalty for the daring manoeuvre.
Slater emerged from the battles in a powerful spot and caught Nael to ignite a battle for second.
The Trident driver carried out the slingshot across the outdoors down the again straight to safe second.
It was nicely timed as a Safety Car was deployed on Lap 21 for the stopped Woohyun Shin at In Her Corner after successful with the wall on the earlier bend.
Before the stoppage, Matteo De Palo additionally had a spin after a conflict with Badoer within the cark park.
The race ended beneath the management of the Safety Car, which was good for Ugochukwu and Slater, however devastating for Nael and Stromsted.
Due to the compressed pack, their time penalties noticed them slip from high 4 locations to outdoors the highest 10.
Kato and Bruno De Palo have been promoted to the rostrum because of this.
Heuzenroeder additionally stayed out of bother to safe a powerful 17th.
F3 is scheduled to return on the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 11-12.
Supercars is up subsequent earlier than F2 and F1 take centre stage on Sunday.
Photo by Quinn Rooney/LAT Images
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