Franco Colapinto takes Imola F3 sprint race victory after last-lap overtake
Franco Colapinto claimed his maiden F3 victory after overtaking Caio Collet on the final lap at Imola.
Collet took the lead of the sprint race on Lap 4, making the most of DRS down to Turn 1 to get ahead of Colapinto.
From then on, the Brazilian controlled the race from the front perfectly, managing the various Safety Car periods throughout a chaotic F3 race.
The battle for the lead went down to the final lap with Collet leading Colapinto and Hitech's Isack Hadjar.
The Argentine seized the lead into Turn 1 but Collet was under threat from Hadjar, who placed his car on the outside of Collet.
Collet moved to the right under the braking zone into Turn 1, causing the pair to collide.
Collet dropped to the back of the field while Hadjar continued through the gravel trap, ultimately recovering to finish in fifth.
Colapinto took the win by 2.6s to move up to third in the championship on 22 points, 11 behind Victor Martins, who benefitted from the last-lap chaos to finish second.
Martins managed to fend off Red Bull F1 junior Jak Crawford to the line to secure second and retain his championship lead ahead of Arthur Leclerc, who failed to score at Imola.
Going into the feature race, Martins leads on 33 points ahead of Leclerc on 24 and then Colapinto on 22 points.
Outside the podium was Roman Stanek in fourth, who picked up his first points of the year, just ahead of Hadjar.
Zane Maloney, who will start the feature race from pole position, finished sixth ahead of Oliver Rasmussen.
Rasmussen finished an impressive seventh in the second Trident after replacing Jonny Edgar ahead of Imola.
Kaylen Frederick, Aleksandr Smolyar and Rafael Villagomez rounded out the top 10.
Click here for the full FIA Formula 3 sprint race results at Imola
