Canadian Lance Stroll continues to dominate the 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championships after winning the first two races at the Nurburgring round yesterday. Kiwi Nick Cassidy finished fourth in the first race and then retired on the opening lap of the second race after a minor collision.
Race 1
With his eighth race win of the season, 17-year-old Canadian Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) extended his lead in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship drivers’ standings: the junior driver of the Williams Formula 1 team now has 68 points more than Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam), who is second in the standings. At the 3.629 kilometres long Nürburgring sprint circuit, Maximilian Günther and George Russell (HitechGP) joined race winner Stroll on the winner’s podium.
Having started from pole position, Lance Stroll took the lead and immediately pulled clear from the rest of the field. During the first 14 laps, Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam) was his nearest rival, but on lap 15, the New Zealander dropped back from second to fourth due to a technical problem with the virtual safety car mode. Thus, Maximilian Günther took over second place while George Russell moved up into third. The top three made it to the finish in that order without any problems, but Cassidy had to defend his position against Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing) until the end of the 22nd race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season. Eventually, Cassidy took the flag 0.510 seconds ahead of Ilott.
In a relatively unspectacular race, Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam) crossed the line in sixth place as the best rookie, followed by four fellow rookies: Joel Eriksson (Motopark), Niko Kari (Motopark), Ben Barnicoat (HitechGP) and Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing).
Race 2
Having already won the 22nd race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season this morning, Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) also turned out to be unbeatable in the 23rd race of the year. Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam), who led the race for a long time, eventually had to make do with second place. Placed second in the drivers’ standings, he is now 76 points down on Stroll. In sunny weather at the 3.629 kilometres’ short circuit lay-out of the Nürburgring, Joel Eriksson (Motopark) ended up as the best-placed rookie in third.
There were already some minor collisions on the opening lap, after which Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam), Ben Barnicoat (HitechGP) and George Russell (HitechGP) retired. As a result, the safety car was deployed and led the field until the start of lap six. At this stage, Maximilian Günther held the lead after having overtaken his team-mate Lance Stroll at the start.
After the restart, the German remained in the lead of the field, but wasn’t able to pull clear from his Canadian rival. On lap 17, the latter mounted a challenge for the lead and overtook Günther without too many problems under braking for the Veedol chicane. In the remainder of the race, Stroll pulled clear from Günther and eventually drove an undisputed victory home.
Behind the two protégés of the Prema Powerteam, Joel Eriksson came third. Three further rookies followed with Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam), Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing) and David Beckmann (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) finishing in that order. Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing), who had been involved in the collisions in the opening stages, came seventh from Sérgio Sette Câmara (Motopark), Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Niko Kari (Motopark).
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