Montoya delighted to finish P5 after ‘eventful’ Spielberg Sprint Race

28 June 2025

Sebastián Montoya was happy with his Saturday at the Red Bull Ring, the PREMA Racing driver fighting his way through the field to finish fifth in the Sprint Race.

The Colombian started in P11 and was running in the same position on Lap 8 of 28, before a couple of moves past Alexander Dunne and Victor Martins put him P9.

Biding his time in P9, a last lap multi-car collision involving Amaury Cordeel, Gabriele Minì, Leonardo Fornaroli and John Bennett helped Montoya gain four places, as he crossed the line to finish fifth.

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Reflecting on it all in the paddock, Montoya said: “Today was quite eventful, very Formula 2-like. I knew the pace was quite strong, I did not know exactly where or how quick we'd be, I just kind of took it lap by lap.

“I got a good start, we were all quite tight, but I made a small mistake out Turn 3, got onto the sausage kerb, and lost a couple of positions.

“At the restart, I had Victor and Alex in front of me, and it seemed like Alex was struggling. He was not able to keep up with the guys in front and Victor showed very strong pace, but I was able to pass, did what I had do and the laps counted by.

Montoya made his way past Martins and Dunne before setting his sights on the points

“At the end of the race, I tried to overtake, but it was kind of hard to do in a DRS train, it was hard to make the difference, but I knew the pace was quite strong. I was close enough where it looked like I could make a move but not close enough to actually complete a move.

“Obviously, the last lap, everyone saw the coming together, there was a big crash, but in the end, quite good, quite happy with the points, another top five.

“It gives us a good base for tomorrow, running in dirty air, clean air, understanding how the tyre works, where we are dropping off and where we as a team are, so quite happy with it.”

The race did not get off to the best of starts for Montoya however, as he dropped to P15 on the opening lap, and was running right behind Luke Browning, Arvid Lindblad and Sami Meguetounif when they collided on Lap 2.

“I was just behind Meguetounif, Browning and Lindblad when they got together, which was quite a big one,” he said. “Happy to see everyone was okay, got a chance to see Luke and he said he was okay, so that was good.”

That incident caused a Red Flag, and back up to P12 at the restart, Montoya made a move past Ritomo Miyata to get back to P11, before battling with Martins and Dunne.

The Colombian felt he had learned a lot from the Sprint to take into the Feature Race

The PREMA rookie did not make another overtake for the rest of the race, and afterwards he explained why despite having strong pace, getting past other drivers was difficult in the Sprint.

“The thing is with the DRS here, you use so much with three straights, so inside I knew I had to conserve and bide my time,” Montoya said. “I knew later on I would have a better opportunity if I managed my race properly.

“When I realised Alex got by Victor, the first lap we did more or less the same lap time and when me engineer told me he was closing, I thought 'let's turn up the heat a little bit' and soon I was able to close up on Fornaroli.

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“I got quite close, but then I think he was also saving quite a lot. As soon as I closed up to him, he closed up to Gabriele and he closed up to Verschoor, who was trying to overtake Bennett.

“I think we all had something in the pocket, but as soon as we got close to each other, we all kind of had our cards laid out.”

Montoya plans on using those same lessons in Sunday’s Feature Race and is confident he and PREMA can have more success given their strong form since Jeddah.

Montoya is feeling confident ahead of the Feature Race

The Colombian has achieved a Feature Race podium at each of the last two rounds – a P3 in Monte Carlo and a P2 in Barcelona – and is feeling optimistic about his chances in Spielberg, where he is set to start 10th.

“I'd say the only race weekend this year where we were struggling with pace was Bahrain, we were struggling a lot,” he continued. “Australia, Gabi was fastest, so the car had good potential, and the Sprint Race I had a good race, I finished P6.

“After that, I had some strong pace in Jeddah, Bahrain was not the best, getting taken out in the first lap in the Sprint and in the Feature, struggling on pace.

“Jeddah we were quite strong, just missing a bit of luck with quali, and weren't able to maximise everything. When we came back to Europe, we made a good step, not only from the team side, but also from my side, and we've just been working on it.”