Verstappen seals F3 treble, horror weekend for Blomqvist

Autosport

Max Verstappen made it six wins in a row by cruising to victory in the third Formula 3 European Championship race of the Norisring weekend.

The brilliant Dutchman got away smartly from pole position, and headed series leader Esteban Ocon and Jordan King from start to finish.

There was a huge gap to the bunch behind, and this was caused by a first-corner chain-reaction shunt.

Jake Dennis, from eighth on the grid, got two wheels on the white line – still wet from earlier rain – and sailed down the inside of the field, shoving perennially unlucky Carlin team-mate Tom Blomqvist out of second place and into retirement.

While King and Ocon scampered through unscathed, frontrunners including Felix Rosenqvist, Antonio Giovinazzi, Antonio Fuoco and Lucas Auer were all embroiled in a Dallara traffic jam on the outside.

Another incident before the first turn, where Jules Szymkowiak and Roy Nissany collided, sent the Israeli into the barriers, and the safety car emerged.

Verstappen’s pace could not be matched by Ocon or King, and the Van Amerfoort Racing man headed the Prema Powerteam and Carlin machines all the way.

Santino Ferrucci was passed for fourth with a dive by Sean Gelael into Turn 1, but further into the race the American was able to get the Indonesian back on the exit of the chicane, and Gustavo Menezes took advantage to demote Gelael into the final turn.

VAR driver Menezes had a lunge on Ferrucci’s EuroInternational car into the final bend with a few laps to go, but overshot the bend and had to settle for fifth.
Gelael had Antonio Giovinazzi, his Jagonya Ayam stablemate within the Carlin squad, in his mirrors for the rest of the race.

A recovering Auer loomed onto Giovinazzi’s gearbox in the closing stages, but the Italian mounted a staunch defence of seventh.

Just behind them, Antonio Fuoco passed Tatiana Calderon on the final lap for ninth, while Rosenqvist failed by just one position to dent the points.

                                                              
Results - 40 laps                                                          
                                                                           
Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Max Verstappen      Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW       35m02.795s         
 2.  Esteban Ocon        Prema Dallara-Mercedes            +4.761s         
 3.  Jordan King         Carlin Dallara-VW                 +7.529s         
 4.  Santino Ferrucci    EuroInternational Dallara-Merc   +21.187s         
 5.  Gustavo Menezes     Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW         +21.179s         
 6.  Sean Gelael         Carlin Dallara-VW                +23.563s         
 7.  Antonio Giovinazzi  Carlin Dallara-VW                +25.319s         
 8.  Lucas Auer          Mucke Dallara-Mercedes           +25.910s         
 9.  Antonio Fuoco       Prema Dallara-Mercedes           +26.394s         
10.  Tatiana Calderon    Jo Zeller Dallara-Mercedes       +26.931s         
11.  Felix Rosenqvist    Mucke Dallara-Mercedes           +26.986s         
12.  Alexander Toril     T-Sport Dallara-NBE              +30.513s         
13.  Felix Serralles     West-Tec Dallara Mercedes        +30.901s         
14.  Spike Goddard       T-Sport Dallara-NBE              +34.358s         
15.  John Bryant-Meisner Fortec Dallara-Mercedes          +38.043s         
16.  Hector Hurst        West-Tec Dallara Mercedes        +41.697s         
17.  Mitch Gilbert       Fortec Dallara-Mercedes          +42.543s         
18.  Sandro Zeller       Jo Zeller Dallara-Mercedes       +43.743s         
19.  Michele Beretta     EuroInternational Dallara-Merc   +46.411s         
                                                                           
Retirements:                                                               
                                                                           
     Nicholas Latifi     Prema Dallara-Mercedes            14 laps         
     Felipe Guimares     Double R Dallara-Mercedes          9 laps         
     Tom Blomqvist       Carlin Dallara-VW                   1 lap         
     Jules Szymkowiak    Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW            1 lap         
     Jake Dennis         Carlin Dallara-VW                  0 laps         
     Roy Nissany         Prema Dallara-Mercedes             0 laps

Verstappen seals F3 treble, horror weekend for Blomqvist

  • Autosport
    About The Author
    -

    eight + five =

    You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

    Related stories