Event: 4, Spielberg
Date: 20th to 22nd May, 2016
Venue: Red Bull Ring / Austria
Track length: 4.326 kilometres
Lap record FIA F3 EC: 1:24.874 minutes (Gustavo Menezes, 2015)
Distance: 33 minutes plus one lap

The FIA Formula 3 European Championship teams and drivers have got nearly no time for a breather following the race meeting held last weekend in Pau, Southern France, as they will have to travel on to Spielberg, Austria to contest the 10th, 11th and 12th race of the season at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.

Alessio Lorandi (Carlin) makes the trip to the 4.326-kilometre long circuit in Styria with boosted confidence as he won the prestigious GP de Pau, while other drivers are also riding high from successes in France.

One of them is George Russell (HitechGP) who celebrated his first win in the 2016 season in Pau. While his team-mate, Ben Barnicoat, made it to the top step for the second time this year. Their team, HitechGP, that is contesting its first full FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, has consequently already got three race wins to its tally. Russell who finished third and fourth in the other two races worked his way up to third position in the championship. In front of him, Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) stole the lead from his team-mate Maximilian Günther and behind him, Stroll, Barnicoat, Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam) and Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing) are waiting for their chance of making it to the top.

Meanwhile, Alessio Lorandi travels to Austria with particularly boosted confidence, as he celebrated his first Formula 3 European Championship win on the challenging Pau street circuit - a triumph that also was the first for his team Carlin in 2016. This means that four teams already succeeded in winning FIA Formula 3 European Championship races this year: Prema Powerteam, Van Amersfoort Racing, HitechGP and Carlin. And there are other teams that also are very close to making this small final step to securing the biggest trophy: Motopark driver Sérgio Sette Câmara, for instance, who had to settle for finishing runner-up, in the end, also came very close to winning a race in Pau, while his two team-mates Niko Kari and Joel Eriksson (Motopark) both finished second in one of the rounds held at Budapest.

Sérgio Sette Câmara (Motopark): “The Red Bull Ring is a fast and modern racetrack but hasn’t lost its character. With its fast and slow sections it’s truly diversified and it offers overtaking opportunities. All in all, the Red Bull Ring is one of my favourite circuits on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship calendar. As I also am a part of the Red Bull Junior Team and being a Brazilian without home race in this European series, this meeting feels like a home event for me. My start into the season was poor but since Pau, things finally are running better for me. And the battle is not over yet. After all, my rivals certainly will also have to cope with not so great weekends at some point. In a race series where you can score up to 75 points per weekend, closing a 40-point gap possibly won’t take too long. In Pau, George Russell demonstrated how quickly you can leap from 11th to third position in the championship.”