F3: Nakamura earns his first win after title rivals Ugochukwu and Slater come to blows in Belgium

Jin Nakamura claimed his first win in FIA Formula 3, winning the Spa-Francorchamps Sprint Race for Hitech.

The Japanese driver started from fourth on the reverse grid but made quick work of MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi and Rodin Motorsport driver Pedro Clerot in the opening corners to climb up to second.

He then made a great Safety Car restart approaching the halfway stage to take the lead of the race from Brando Badoer. From there, the Hitech driver managed from the front, surviving a snap of oversteer at a late Safety Car restart to earn top-spot on Saturday.

Rodin teammates Badoer and Clerot completed the top three after an intra-team battle throughout the 12-lap Sprint.

Completing the points were Colnaghi and ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato. Theophile Nael followed in sixth ahead of Tuukka Taponen, Ernesto Rivera, Alessandro Giusti and Noah Stromsted to round out the points positions down to 10th.

The initial Safety Car arrived on the opening lap following contact at Turn 6 between current Drivers’ Championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu and closest rival Freddie Slater.

The Campos Racing driver had attempted a move at Les Combes, but the pair suffered contact that left Slater on the sidelines in his TRIDENT. Ugochukwu recovered to the pitlane with damage but went on to finish the race a lap down in 29th position. The contact was judged to have been a racing incident by the stewards.

Sunday’s Feature Race is set to get underway at 0830 local time, with Slater set to go from pole as he eyes his first F3 victory to close the points gap, while Ugochukwu will serve two separate grid penalties assigned after Qualifying on Friday.

For a full report on the FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race, head to the new official website here.