FIA Formula 3: Barcelona, Rd.5 2023 – Press Release
Just days after the Monaco Grand Prix, Jonny Edgar made the journey with his MP Motorsport team to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix, but came away frustrated after not being able to add to his points tally.
Jonny and his team elected not to complete many laps in practice due to the fact that tyre wear was a major issue. He completed just enough laps to get familiar with the track conditions and the new circuit layout, following removal of the last chicane.
Unfortunately for the D Tolson & Sons supported driver, qualifying didn’t go according to plan and his fastest time put him in 17th place. This meant that for both the Sprint and Feature races it would be difficult to break into the points, due to the limited overtaking opportunities at the Spanish circuit.
In the Sprint Race, Jonny lost some ground at the start and ended the first lap in 19th place as the safety car was deployed for an incident. When the race restarted on the fifth lap, Jonny immediately began to make amends, moving up to 18th, and by keeping out of trouble and avoiding any collisions himself, would gradually move up to 15th position by the time a second safety car intervention was called. The Cumbrian based driver took advantage of the safety car bunching up the field and enjoyed a great battle in the closing stages of the race to take 14th. Jonny was however promoted to 12th after post race penalties were applied.
Jonny got his Feature Race off to a great start courtesy of an impressive move round the outside of turn 1 which allowed him to move up to 13th position, before the safety car was deployed for the third time that weekend. After the restart, Jonny struggled with the balance of his car and unfortunately lost a couple of positions to cross the line in 15th place.
Jonny: “In practice nobody did that many laps because of how fast the tyres dropped off, and because we couldn’t use more than one set in practice in order to make sure we had a proper run plan in qualifying we only did a handful of laps. However, qualifying wasn’t great and from then on it was a difficult weekend because it’s so hard to overtake in Barcelona. Then in race 1 I had a bit of wheel spin off the start and I lost a few places before turn 1. Over the rest of the race I was able to make up some places but it was still tough to follow other cars and do anything other than on the safety car restarts. My start in the feature race was much better and I made up a few places, but then after that I struggled with the balance of the car and I lost a few places in the early stages of the race. I was able to hold onto P15 for the rest of the race though.”
The next round of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 championship will take place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria from 30th June – 2nd July. Practice, qualifying and both races will all be shown live on Sky Sports F1.
Spanish Grand Prix FIA Formula 3
Qualifying
17. J.Edgar (MP Motorsport) +0.899
Sprint Race
12. J.Edgar (MP Motorsport) +9.586
Feature Race
15. J.Edgar (MP Motorsport) +34.282
FIA formula 3 Championship points after 8 of 20 races
18. J.Edgar (MP Motorsports) 2pts
