The Prema Racing driver drove a smart race, waiting until the second half of the 23-lap journey to make a move and in the end establishing a telling lead over Leonardo Fornaroli.
Trident’s Fornaroli bolted at the start but his handy gap was almost immediately negated by a Safety Car period, prompted by a clash between local driver Tommy Smith (Van Amersfoort) and Joseph Loake (Rodin).
After the damaged cars were cleared away, Fornaroli tried to establish a DRS-proof gap but Gabriele Mini initially held on, keeping it to just under one second and staying in touch. By lap 12 Fornaroli had his advantage beyond the magic DRS gap and tried to ease away, leaving Mini to fend off Beganovic.
That defence only lasted until lap 13 when, after the Prema team management gave him approval to overtake his team-mate, the Swede took off after Fornaroli. Mini looked to have overworked his tyres, when a lap later Williams junior Luke Browning snatched third and pulled away.
It took only a lap for Beganovic to catch Fornaroli and the Trident pilot looked in no mood to defend the faster car, which sliced past at Turn 9 to take the lead, Fornaroli seemingly content to allow Beganovic to set the pace. But over the final two laps Beganovic broke away, taking his maiden F3 win by 0.89secs.
Fornaroli’s fifth podium finish came after a clever drive, but just as the leading pair had settled down to fight out the win, Browning and Mini staged their own for the final step on the podium. Williams Junior Browning held the edge over the Alpine junior until the penultimate lap, Mini sweeping around the outside of Turn 6.
Browning was nearly 13 seconds clear of fifth placed Charlie Wurz. The rookie had a great maiden Feature race at Albert Park, holding out a fellow second-generation driver, Sebastian Montoya (Campos), for fifth place. Fellow Campos pilots Mari Boya and Nikita Bedrin (PHM AIX) finished seventh and eighth.
Oliver Goethe followed ahead of the best local driver, Christian Mansell, to finish ninth. The ART driver, who ran wide and lost ground at the first restart, went on to finish 10th. The other Australian driver in the race, Tommy Smith, tangled with Joseph Loake on the opening lap, prompting the Safety Car.
Sprint race winner Martinius Stenshorne had a mid-race clash with Joshua Dufek and later reported a punctured tyre. The Hitech driver was classified 26th, the last of the drivers to finish the race.
The results mean that Browning and Fornaroli are now tied for the championship lead on 37 points, with Mini on 32. Beganovic jumps to fourth on 28 ahead of Lindblad on 23 and Tramnitz and Mansell tied on 21.
F3 Melbourne – Feature race resuts:
| 1 |
D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam |
1 | 23 | 25 | 1 | ||||||
| 2 |
L. Fornaroli Trident |
4 | 23 | 1.682 | 18 | ||||||
| 3 |
G. Minì Prema Powerteam |
2 | 23 | 1.539 | 15 | ||||||
| 4 |
L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight |
14 | 23 | 0.829 | 12 | ||||||
| 5 |
C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport |
17 | 23 | 12.908 | 10 | ||||||
| 6 | S. Montoya Campos Racing | 11 | 23 | 4.272 | 8 | ||||||
| 7 |
M. Boya Campos Racing |
12 | 23 | 0.262 | 6 | ||||||
| 8 |
N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing |
27 | 23 | 4.118 | 4 | ||||||
| 9 |
O. Goethe Campos Racing |
10 | 23 | 0.920 | 2 | ||||||
| 10 |
C. Mansell ART Grand Prix |
23 | 23 | 0.255 | 1 | ||||||
| 11 |
A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam |
3 | 23 | 0.224 | |||||||
| 12 |
S. Meguetounif Trident |
5 | 23 | 2.428 | |||||||
| 13 |
L. Van ART Grand Prix |
24 | 23 | 0.075 | |||||||
| 14 |
M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport |
18 | 23 | 0.929 | |||||||
| 15 |
T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport |
7 | 23 | 2.582 | |||||||
| 16 |
A. Dunne MP Motorsport |
9 | 23 | 0.554 | |||||||
| 17 |
M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport |
19 | 23 | 0.490 | |||||||
| 18 |
K. Sztuka MP Motorsport |
8 | 23 | 3.745 | |||||||
| 19 |
N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix |
25 | 23 | 0.410 | |||||||
| 20 |
C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight |
16 | 23 | 4.471 | |||||||
| 21 |
C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport |
29 | 23 | 1.387 | |||||||
| 22 |
J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing |
28 | 23 | 8.668 | |||||||
| 23 |
P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport |
30 | 23 | 8.847 | |||||||
| 24 |
S. Ramos Trident |
6 | 23 | 8.331 | |||||||
| 25 |
N. León Van Amersfoort Racing |
20 | 23 | 0.709 | |||||||
| 26 |
M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight |
15 | 23 | 3.600 | |||||||
| dnf |  S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing |
21 | 1 | 22 Laps | Retirement | ||||||
| dnf |
T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing |
26 | 0 | Retirement | |||||||
| dnf |
J. Loake Rodin Motorsport |
31 | 0 | Retirement | |||||||
| dnf |
T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing |
22 | 0 | Retirement |
