For the fourth consecutive time, Mick Schumacher (PREMA Theodore Racing) has won an FIA Formula 3 European Championship race. As Daniel Ticktum (Motopark), his fiercest rival in the battle for the FIA Formula 3 European Championship title, only finished eighth, Schumacher is also moving up into first place of the drivers’ standings.
At the rain-soaked 4.318 kilometres long Red Bull Ring, Robert Shvartzman (PREMA Theodore Racing) and Alex Palou (Hitech Bullfrog GP) finished behind the German. Despite the lack of experience on the wet at the Austrian venue, Marcus Armstrong ended up in fourth place, putting up a great fight to reclaim the position with an outside move. In the afternoon, he got a front row start too and will take-off from P2 in race 2.
“Race 1 was good, we got another good finish and more points,” commented Armstrong. “The car was pretty good. In qualifying I got a good quickest lap but then I caught a little bit of dirty air from a car in front which cost me a bit even if I got its slipstream. We brought home a second and a fifth place and it’s a pretty good starting point for tomorrow.”
The German youngster put together another stellar performance on the wet Austrian racetrack to take his fourth straight win, the seventh of the year so far. To make it even more special, he cruised to the championship lead in the process and then delivered two pole positions for race 2 and 3.
Shwartzman posted his fourth consecutive second-place finish at the end of a hard-fought battle with his teammate and then captured the second place on the grid for race 3 and third place for race 2. The Russian continued to show great form. He and Schumacher were impressive for their aggressive but absolutely fair approach to the battle. Shwartzman also took the lead of the rookie classification.
Guanyu Zhou had a consistent performance and ended up in P12, making the most out of the difficult conditions of the mid-pack. Despite having to start 20th for an engine change, Ralf Aron recovered well but could not score points. He will start race 2 and 3 from P9 and P6 respectively.
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