Academy Report: Spielberg Silverware for Sandro

The month off racing didn't slow down the consistency for Alessandro Giusti in F3, who doubled up his podium trip in Spain with another rostrum visit in Austria.

Our French teenager wasn't the only Williams Racing Driver Academy representative at the Red Bull Ring, with Luke Browning and Victor Martins in Formula 2 action.

A scary crash and breathtaking wheel-to-wheel racecraft bookended F2's two races. Despite the drama, all three of our Academy drivers took points from Spielberg. Here's how.

Sandro made his first F3 podium trip in Barcelona four weeks ago in the Spanish Feature Race, and took that confidence to a P2 finish in this weekend's Sprint.

Starting from the front row on Saturday, Sandro's solid start had him pushing polesitter James Wharton for P1 on the run to Turn 3, but he couldn't quite make it past the Australian.

An early Safety Car slowed down any further chance to attack in the opening laps, but our F3 hopeful went on the attack again when green flag running resumed.

Frustratingly, an incident between home driver Charlie Wurz and Brando Badoer in the fight for P3 triggered a further Safety Car slowdown just as Sandro was probing for a pass for the lead.

Nonetheless, a P2 finish meant another F3 podium for the French F3 rookie, who took a P12 classification in the Feature Race after a recovery drive from the lower midfield positions.

It's another chance for a trophy this weekend for Sandro, too, with Formula 3 taking on Silverstone in support of the British Grand Prix. This will be Sandro's first single-seater race in the UK, where he'll look to impress the packed grandstands.

A slender 0.014s margin separated Victor from his second pole position of the 2025 season in one of the tightest F2 Qualifying sessions we'll see all season.

That meant a fifth-row start for Saturday's Sprint Race, but Victor used all of his F2 experience to avoid an incident-packed midfield scrap.

Keeping his cool after a red flag and Safety Car, the 24-year-old racer passed McLaren's FP1 debutant Alex Dunne to reach P9 on the restart, but dropped back to P10 when fighting with Sebastian Montoya two laps later.

Dunne fought back to demote Victor to P11 with a late-braking pass at Turn 3, but Victor secured more valuable points after a four-car crash on the last lap which advanced him to P7 in the final classification.

P7 was also his final finishing position in a roller-coaster Sunday Feature Race that had a drop to P3 off the line, which turned to P1 after utilising the undercut on the top two.

However, Richard Verschoor and Dunne got by with the fresher-tyre pace, and late-race battling with Leonardo Fornaroli, Pepe Martí, Montoya, and Luke had Victor survive contact at Turn 4 to still secure points with a P7 finish.

Silverstone awaits Victor this weekend, and it's a circuit that holds a special place, with the Frenchman's maiden F2 victory coming at the Northamptonshire track in 2023.

Luke will be grateful for the halo over his Dallara chassis after a terrifying incident at Turn 3 in Saturday's Sprint Race that saw a rival's car flip over his cockpit.

Even though Luke was just half-a-second from pole, the close F2 field meant he started both races from the lower midfield positions in P17.

As we saw in F1's Austrian Grand Prix, drivers can be innocent participants in Turn 3 crashes, and that was the case for our 23-year-old Briton on Saturday.

Sami Meguetounif's Trident went airborne at the hairpin, and the Frenchman's car flipped directly over Luke's helmet, with the halo safeguarding the drivers from harm.

Luke, thankfully, was uninjured, although his race was over, and he kept his concentration for a Sunday fightback instead.

Five places from P17 to P12 came on the first lap alone, then a quick pit stop and fast laps helped Luke reach a net P6 as the alternative strategy runners waited to stop.

Fights ahead of him involving Victor helped Luke close the gap further, and he went wheel-to-wheel with his Academy stablemate to the line, finishing less than a second ahead.

With Martí picking up a time penalty, Luke took a P5 classification and 10 more points for his championship charge.

A home race comes next for Luke, who wowed the Silverstone crowd last year with his first F3 pole position.

That speed continued into the race, but the Great British weather had other plans for a possible victory when rain fell. Can he find that speed again this weekend?