Kato finishes sixth in the Feature Race at Spa-Francorchamps
Circuit de Spa-FrancorchampsOn Sunday 19 July, the Feature Race for FIA F3 Round 6 was held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) driver Taito Kato was sixth in the sprint race, which featured 30 cars.
Feature Race: 12th on the grid → 6th
The 15-lap Feature Race began at 8:30am on Sunday 19 July in dry conditions, with Taito Kato starting from 12th on the grid.
As in the previous day’s Sprint Race, contact between several cars on the opening lap brought out the Safety Car. Kato moved up to ninth before making another overtake at the Lap 4 restart to take eighth.
He continued his charge through the field, climbing to seventh on Lap 11 and sixth on Lap 13. With a gap of around three seconds to fifth place and only two laps remaining, Kato was unable to close the gap and finished the race in sixth.
Kato scored 15 points across the weekend, earning six in the Sprint Race and nine in the Feature Race, including one point for the fastest lap.
Round 7 will take place at the Hungaroring in Hungary from 24 to 26 July. It has also been announced that an additional Feature Race will be held at the final round in Spain from 11 to 13 September, replacing the cancelled Bahrain race.
The Feature Race was much better, particularly in terms of race pace, and the overall feeling with the car was very good. I made a good start and moved up to P9. I then began managing the tyres and was able to do so well for the rest of the race. I was able to make some overtakes and eventually finished P6.
Overall, I am happy with the weekend. Of course, I wanted more and would like to be fighting for podiums, but P5 and P6 represented a decent and solid weekend, especially after the major issues we experienced at Silverstone. It was a significant step forward.
Driving at Spa in Formula 3 was a lot of fun. Compared with F4 and FRECA, the car has significantly more downforce and grip, making Eau Rouge easily flat out and relatively straightforward to drive through.
Budapest is going to be very hot, and there will probably be a lot of traffic again. The good feeling with the car has returned, so we need to keep working in the same way and hopefully fight for the podium.
The Feature Race was much better, particularly in terms of race pace, and the overall feeling with the car was very good. I made a good start and moved up to P9. I then began managing the tyres and was able to do so well for the rest of the race. I was able to make some overtakes and eventually finished P6.
Overall, I am happy with the weekend. Of course, I wanted more and would like to be fighting for podiums, but P5 and P6 represented a decent and solid weekend, especially after the major issues we experienced at Silverstone. It was a significant step forward.
Driving at Spa in Formula 3 was a lot of fun. Compared with F4 and FRECA, the car has significantly more downforce and grip, making Eau Rouge easily flat out and relatively straightforward to drive through.
Budapest is going to be very hot, and there will probably be a lot of traffic again. The good feeling with the car has returned, so we need to keep working in the same way and hopefully fight for the podium.
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