Luke Browning tops the leader board for a second successive race weekend after taking fourth place in the Melbourne F3 Feature Race.

He led the charge for Hitech GP today, starting from fifth on the grid and running in podium contention during the mid-part of the race, when he was engaged in an intense battle with Mini for third. On lap 16, the Italian seized the advantage over the Williams Academy driver as tyre management came into play.

“We didn’t quite get out of the graining phase as quickly as the others,” said Browning. “They seemed to manage the tyre better in the mid-section of the race.

“Overall, I’m still happy to finish fourth today and be leading the Drivers’ championship as we head to Europe. We’ll take the time over the next few weeks to focus on where we can extract more of the potential, to ensure we’re able to challenge for the top spots from Imola onwards.”

Sprint Race winner Martinius Stenshorne had a much trickier time of things today from the sixth row of the grid, picking up a puncture that pushed him right down the order to 26^th.

Cian Shields’ race was a marked improvement on his Sprint outing. Good pace and improved tyre management helped him gain eight places to finish 20^th.

Feature Race Team Result (Sunday)

Luke Browning              4^th – 12 points
Cian Shields                   20^th
Martinius Stenshorne  25^th

Up next, in-season testing in Barcelona from 17-19 April before the race calendar resumes with Round 3 in Imola on 17-19 May.