For Kiwi driver Marcus Armstrong he again experienced the highs and lows of a FIA Formula 3 European Championship weekend, finishing P2, P13 and a DNF in the final race at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli and has dropped to third overall in the championship.
“After the tough race 2 with a difficult start, in race 3 we had another non-ideal situation,” commented Armstrong. “I’m actually more disappointed that we couldn’t make a good lead at the beginning. It would have been nice to collect some points. Anyway, these things happen and we’ll be back strong at Nürburgring
For the rest of the PREMA Theodore Racing, the Adriating seaside venue provided tough weather conditions for the running of race 2 and race 3 of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.
At the end of the day, the team was able to secure a win and a third-place finish overall, bringing home extremely valuable points. In race 1, a raft of post-qualifying track limits penalties saw most of the field getting penalized, but Mick Schumacher tamed the initial damp conditions to perfection. Starting from P6, the 19-year-old German cruised to third place emerging once again as a top championship contender.
In race 2, held under pouring rain and resumed after a lengthy red flag due to the water on-track, Schumacher rounded out the top-5. Celebrating on the top step of the podium was Estonian Ralf Aron, who attacked team-mate Marcus Armstrong to take a late lead and then pulled away, surviving a further re-start from a safety-car situation to score his 4th win of 2018.
Armstrong, who struggled at the start of race 2 ending up in P13, was later involved in a contact with another of the team’s cars, the one driven by Guanyu Zhou. The Chinese racer locked wheels while defending from an opponent: both him and Armstrong were forced to retire.
Russian Robert Shwartzman faced some issues in qualifying 2 but mastered the track conditions to post two massive spectacular. In race 2, he went from P15 to P9, then put up an even better show in race 3 going from P16 at the start to P7 at the flag. As a result, he made it to the rookie podium twice.
The next FIA Formula 3 European Championship race weekend will be taking place at the Nürburgring in a fortnight.
Overall Points 21/30 races (Top 5)
1 Ticktum 222
2 Vips 210
3 Armstrong 190
4 Schumacher 186
5 Aron 183,5
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