Louis Sharp’s rollercoaster F3 Sprint: Lightning start, costly collision, and a fighting finish

The 30-car field lined up for the first sprint race of the 2025 season, with Trident driver Rafael Câmara starting in the pole position after topping the qualifying session yesterday.

Kiwi Louis Sharp lined up on the grid in 15th place. Rodin Motorsport teammate Roman Bilinski completed a strong qualifying session, starting the race on the second row in 3rd, while British teammate Callum Voisin started down the grid behind Sharp in the 18th.

On the first lap, Sharp had an impressive start, jumping up to 8th and making up seven spots before coming into contact with Hitech TGR driver Joshua Dufek. This contact caused Sharp to spin out, falling down the grid to 24th and causing a virtual safety car.

Dufek came into the pits to repair his car after the collision, and the Hitech TGR team replaced his front wing. Sharp stayed out. Race control later gave Dufek a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.

Green flag racing got underway on Lap 3, with Sharp in 24th, Rodin Motorsport teammates Voisin in 12th, and Bilinski in 3rd.

It wasn’t long before the second race incident occurred. James Wharton entered Turn 11 too deep and collected two cars, Rafael Câmara and Laurens Van Hoepen. This resulted in the race’s first full safety car and all three cars retiring from the race. Race control investigated the incident and later handed down a 10-second penalty to Wharton, who had already retired from the race.

Green flag racing got underway again on Lap 8, with the Top 4 cars pulling away from the rest of the field: Santiago Ramos, Martinius Stenshorne, Roman Bilinski and Matías Zagazeta.

At the halfway mark of the 20-lap sprint race, Sharp had improved by 3 spots to 21st.

The safety car made its second appearance in the first race of the season. Aix Racing driver Javier Sagrera and MP Motorsport driver Bruno Del Pino made contact, sending Sagrera into the wall. Both cars flew into the gravel trap at speed and became beached. Sagrera’s car showed severe damage after heavy contact with the wall before stopping in the gravel.

“Mate, he turned into me!” said Del Pino on the team radio.

The incident left a lot of gravel on the track, resulting in the final laps being held under the safety car. The safety car pulled into the pit lane on the last corner, allowing cars to cross the finish line under yellow.

Sharp finished in a respectable 18th position, with his Polish teammate Bilinski scoring his first podium on his debut race. Rodin Motorsport’s third driver, Voisin, finished the race 9th.

Overall, it was a good race for New Zealand Motor Racing team Rodin Motorsport with a podium and Top 10 finish but an unlucky first race for Sharp, who showed fast pace on the first lap before becoming the victim of a collision with Dufek.

Santiago Ramos won the first race of the season for Van Amersfoort Racing. Martinius Stenshorne finished second for Hitech TGR Racing, and Roman Bilinski finished third. By the conclusion of the action-packed double safety car sprint race, eight cars had retired.

Stenshorne completed the fastest lap of the race with a 1:38.069s.

The FIA Formula 3 Feature Race kicks off tomorrow at 11.00 am NZT.

Full Race Results – FIA Formula 3 Melbourne Sprint Race

Header Image: FIA Formula 3/Getty Images