FIA Formula 3: Spielberg, Rd.6 2023 – Press Release
Jonny Edgar and his MP Motorsport team returned to action for the sixth round of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 season at the Red Bull Ring and enjoyed a strong weekend with a double points finish, including a top 5 result.
After a challenging first half of the season, the Cumbrian based driver was looking to score his first points finish since the opening round in Bahrain.
Friday’s free practice session took place in dry conditions and Jonny was able to log more than 20 laps to get a good feeling for his MP Motorsport Dallara F3 car, but despite feeling confident with his machine Jonny was unable to complete a clear lap in qualifying, thanks to traffic, so his qualifying position wasn’t representative of his pace.
Starting from 16th on the grid, Jonny made a fantastic get away in the wet and tricky conditions and had moved up to 10th position by the end of the first lap. Jonny wasn’t done there and engaged in a great battle with Sebastian Montoya over 9th position. By the time the safety car was deployed, just after the half race distance, Jonny had moved up to 8th place. When the racing resumed with six laps to go, he made two fantastic overtakes around the outside of turn 7 on Montoya and Kaylen Frederick to move up into 6th. The British driver’s impressive race would end in 5th position after a last lap pass on Pepe Marti.
Sunday’s feature race ran in dry conditions and once again the D Tolson & Sons backed driver made another good start from 16th, making up four places before the safety car was deployed on lap two. When the racing resumed Jonny set about working his way back into the top 10 and by lap 16 he had indeed moved into the points. On the following lap Jonny gained two places, thanks to a collision ahead, and finished the race in sixth after making another overtake on Marti and capitalising on Montoya’s off on the final lap.
Jonny’s strong performances at the Red Bull Ring sees him move up the championship standings after picking up an impressive 14 points from the weekend.
Jonny: “Practice was much better than for previous races and the speed seemed to be pretty good, I got some traffic after fitting new tyres at the end, but the potential seemed to be there. In qualifying on the second run I was just too close to the car ahead so I lost a lot of time in the high speed corners due to dirty air which was a shame but I was confident after the session that the car was good and that the result could’ve been much better. In the Sprint Race I had a really good start and on lap 1 made up a lot of places and then after this the pace was really good and I managed to make a few overtakes and make my way up to p5.”
“In the Feature Race I didn’t make up many places at the start but throughout the race I just focused on saving my tyres and being cautious and I managed to take places from other cars making mistakes and some people started to struggle with the tyres and at the end I was catching the lead group. Overall the weekend was the best one so far this year.”
The seventh round of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 championship takes place this weekend (7th – 9th July) at Jonny’s home circuit, Silverstone in the United Kingdom. Live coverage from the weekend will be broadcast on Sky Sports F1.
Austrian Grand Prix FIA Formula 3
Qualifying
16. J Edgar (MP Motorsport) +0.615
Sprint Race
5. J Edgar (MP Motorsport) +6.372
Feature Race
6. J Edgar (MP Motorsport) +4.723
FIA Formula 3 Championship points after 10 races
14. J Edgar (MP Motorsport) 16pts
