2023 Formula 3 Sepang round

Circuit layout

The 2023 Formula 3 Sepang round was a motor racing event held at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Malaysia. It was the opening round of the 2023 Formula 3 Championship and was held in support of the 2023 Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix.

## Report

**Qualifying**

Streamline Engineering duo locked-out the front row in qualifying, with Reece Parker taking pole position ahead of his teammate Robert Koczuch. Ethan Clarke and Genetic Fool took the second row of the grid, separated by mere 2 thousandths of a second. Meanwhile, Damian Dolot was the biggest loser of qualifying, finding himself down in 13th place on the grid despite contending for pole position at the start of the session, as he found himself in the traffic.

**Race**

As the five red lights went out, Koczuch has made an incredible start, jumping his teammate within first 50 metres and leading by over half a second as the Streamline duo reached turn 1. In the meantime, chaos unfolded right behind them, as Senne Stofmeel jumped the inside kerb of turn 2, also taking out the rear wing of Jack Carroll in the process, and Emanuele Reale found himself rolling his car over the same kerb. Miraculously, all of them were able to continue, although not without damage. One lap 3, Soichiro Otani became the first retirement of the 2023 Formula 3 season, rolling their car and crashing into the outside barrier of turn 11. At the start of lap 6, the circuit saw the first droplets of rain fall onto the asphalt, with more clouds approaching from the north-east side of the circuit. Meanwhile, Tiarnan Finneran has attempted a very unorthodox double-overtake on the same lap, diving down the inside of Ash Baker and Damian Dolot into tightening turn 14, miserably failing and ramming into sidepod of the Polish driver, with Ash Baker only narrowly avoiding the incident. DRS played major part in the opening stage of the race, with the top three drivers of Koczuch, Parker, and Genetic Fool swapping positions on lap-to-lap basis down the main straight, however Robert finally managed to break the train on lap 8, which his teammate also used to run away from Fool a lap later. After losing the DRS behind Streamline duo, Fool quickly was forced to look behind, as Ethan Clarke, Reece Burke, and Dominik Chroński have themselves managed to get within DRS range of the Forza Rossa driver. Lap 12 saw the second retirement of the race, as Joseph Willows, who was running in 9th place with a fastest lap, was forced to stop on the exit of turn 14 with an engine failure. Depite rain still over the circuit, Forza Rossa were the first team to bite the bullet in terms of pit-stops, bringing Bruno Ricci onto a fresh set of soft tyres at the end of lap 13, with his teammate, Genetic, called into the pit-lane on the following lap on slicks. Ethan Clarke also decided to come into the pit-lane on lap 14. However the strategy turned out to be a massive blunder from the Forza Rosso crew, as well as Clarke who attempted to cover the Italian outfit, as on lap 15 most of the grid came in for wet tyres, with only Burke and Josh Cassar staying out on the circuit. All remaining slick tyre runners came into the pit-lane at the end of lap 16. Controversy and chaos ensued on the following laps, as the wet tyres were falling off extremely quickly in those conditions, with some teams even supposedly reporting over 50% wear per lap, forcing most of the drivers to come in for new sets of wets every one or two laps. JEIA and Pirelli launched joint investigation regarding the issue, hoping that the tyre issue will be fixed for second round of the championship in Sakhir. Meanwhile, Bruno Ricci and Emanuele Reale both suffered engine failures, on lap 16 and 18 respectively. Amidst that chaos, Baker and Cassar, who were running 6th and 11th before the pit-stops, suddenly found themselves running in 3rd and 4th place respectively, and managed to stay in those positions until the end of the race. Despite the drama, Streamline duo were uncontended at the top, with Koczuch and Parker scoring an amazing 1-2 finish for the British team.

## Classification

**Qualifying**

**Race**