2024 Sakhir Formula 3 round

The 2024 Sakhir FIA Formula 3 round was a motor racing event held between 29 February and 2 March 2024 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. It was the first race of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship and was being held in support of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Team changes
New Zealand automotive manufacturer Rodin Cars took over Carlin and renamed the team Rodin Motorsport, after previously becoming majority shareholder in 2023.

Driver changes
The previous season's top five drivers - reigning champion Gabriel Bortoleto, runner-up Zak O'Sullivan, Paul Aron, Franco Colapinto, and Pepe Martí - all left the series and graduated to the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Italian F4 Championship champion and Kacper Sztuka and third-placed Arvid Lindblad debuted in the series with MP Motorsport and Prema Racing, respectively, both as Red Bull Junior Team members, and Formula Regional European Championship runner-up Martinius Stenshorne joined Hitech Pulse-Eight. Thai Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Peruvian Matías Zagazeta, and Alex Dunne of Ireland became the first drivers to represent their respective nations in series history.

Summary
Dino Beganovic set the fastest qualifying time for the opening round at Bahrain International Circuit to claim feature race pole position, followed by Luke Browning and Gabriele Minì. Laurens van Hoepen qualified twelfth and thus started the reverse-grid sprint race from first place. His ART Grand Prix teammate Nikola Tsolov took the lead at the first corner, and the two drivers continued competing for first position for much of the race. Arvid Lindblad, who started fourth, took advantage of the battle in front and overtook both drivers to claim the lead, and later the race win, on his FIA Formula 3 debut. He was joined on the podium by Van Hoepen, also on his debut race, and Leonardo Fornaroli, who had passed Tsolov in the closing laps.

Pole-sitter Beganovic encountered an issue off the start line in the feature race and was overtaken by the entire field before the first corner. The lead therefore passed to Browning, with Sami Meguetounif and Tim Tramnitz improving to the podium positions. Eighth-place starter Christian Mansell made overtakes at the start and had claimed second place by lap five. Mansell ran close behind Browning for most of the race but was unable to pass, and Browning took his first FIA Formula 3 victory, with Tramnitz completing the podium on his debut weekend. At the conclusion of the round, Browning led the Drivers' Championship by four points over Tramnitz.

Qualifying
Qualifying was held on 29 February 2024, at 16:00 local time (UTC+3).

Notes:
 * – Matías Zagazeta received a five-place grid penalty for the Feature Race for causing a collision with Tommy Smith in the Sprint Race.

Sprint race
The sprint race was held on 1 March 2024, at 13:15 local time (UTC+3).

Feature race
The feature race was held on 2 March 2024, at 12:00 local time (UTC+3).

Notes:
 * – Nikita Bedrin originally finished eighteenth, but was later given a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits multiple times, dropping him down to 20th place in the final classification.
 * – Sophia Flörsch retired on the final lap, but was classified as she completed over 90% of the race distance.

Standings after the event

 * Drivers' Championship standings
 * Teams' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.