Kiwi driver Nick Cassidy has finished second in the opening race at Zandvoort (Holland) at the FIA European F3 Championship, then went on to win his first race in the series (race 2), and then scored another second place in race three. Cassidy is now fourth overall in the points standings, just one point behind Callum Ilott in third with just 12 races left in the season.
Race 3
Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam) scored an undisputed lights-to-flag victory. At the 4.307 kilometres long Circuit Park Zandvoort, the German won from his team-mate Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam). The best-placed rookie, David Beckmann (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) finished in third place, not only scoring his own maiden FIA Formula 3 European Championship podium finish, but also securing the first podium for his team kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport in the 2016 FIA Formula 3 European Championship season. Race winner Günther reduced his gap to championship leader Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) to 56 points. After two pit stops, the Canadian only finished in 19th place.
“I am happy with this weekend and I am also happy with this race,” Cassidy commented. “I started from second place and finished in the same position, so I can’t complain.”
Starting from pole position, Maximilian Günther immediately took the lead. Nick Cassidy slotted into second place just behind his team-mate while David Beckmann was in third place. On the opening lap, the latter still had his main rival Alessio Lorandi (Carlin) in full-size in his rear-view mirror, but then, the 16-year-old was able to build up an advantage that he managed to extend during the following laps.
Out in front, Günther was able to pull clear from Cassidy, while the New Zealander, in turn, increased his margin from Beckmann more and more. More exciting than the racing at the front was the battle for eleventh place involving Niko Kari (Motopark), Mikkel Jensen (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport), Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing), and Ryan Tveter (Carlin). Finnish rookie driver Kari withstood the pressure from Danish stalwart, Jensen, and brought eleventh place home.
Ten positions ahead of Kari, Maximilian Günther took the flag as the winner after 23 laps of racing. He scored his third victory of the season. He finished ahead of Nick Cassidy and the best-placed rookie David Beckmann. Alessio Lorandi, George Russell (HitechGP), Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing), Joel Eriksson (Motopark), Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam), Ben Barnicoat (HitechGP), and Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing) rounded out the top ten.
Race 2
Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam) has pulled it off and finally scored his maiden race win in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. At the start, the New Zealander pipped his rivals and after 23 laps, he took the chequered flag in first place. Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam) finished second from Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing), who had started from pole position into the 17th race of the season. In the drivers’ standings, Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) remains in the lead, although the Canadian retired from the race at the 4.307 kilometres long Circuit Park Zandvoort.
“Taking victory in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship is a really good feeling, I am overjoyed,” commented Cassidy. “This victory is for my team and for all those who are supporting me. So far, things haven’t always been going trouble-free for me this season, which was down to factors beyond my control and also beyond control of the team.
“Today, I already knew prior to the start that the first corner would probably be my only chance to overtake Callum, who was ahead of me on the grid. After that, my race wasn’t easy either, because Maximilian was quite quick behind me. Eventually, it was enough and I am really happy.”
At the start, Callum Ilott was unable to benefit from the advantage of his pole position and had to let Nick Cassidy pull away. After the first corner, he lost another place to Maximilian Günther and dropped back to third place. Initially, Günther and Ilott remained close to race leader Cassidy, but not close enough to mount an attack. In fourth place, Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing) was unable to follow the trio up front at an early stage already, but didn’t have any danger from Alessio Lorandi (Carlin), who was behind him.
At the circuit in the dunes on the North Sea coast, where it is notoriously difficult to make up positions in a Formula 3 car, there were hardly any overtaking manoeuvres. Thus, Cassidy eventually was first across the finish line, followed by Günther, Ilott, Hubert as the best-placed rookie, Alessio Lorandi (Carlin), a trio of rookie drivers with Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam), David Beckmann (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) and Ben Barnicoat (HitechGP) as well as George Russell (HitechGP). Nikita Mazepin (HitechGP), who finished in tenth place, was given a five seconds’ time penalty as his car wasn’t correctly placed in the starting grid box prior to the race. That promoted Joel Eriksson (Motopark) to tenth place. The Russian rookie, who shone behind the wheel of a Force India Formula 1 car in testing at Silverstone earlier this week, was classified in 15th place.
Race 1
At the 4.307 kilometres long Circuit Park Zandvoort, Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) extended his FIA Formula 3 European Championship points’ lead with his sixth victory of the season. He has now 99 points more than his nearest rival, Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam). At the start of the race, the junior driver of the Williams Formula 1 team took the lead and drove an undisputed victory home. Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam) and Alessio Lorandi (Carlin) followed suit. For Italian driver Lorandi, it was his second podium in this year’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship after his victory in the prestigious Grand Prix de Pau in May.
Lance Stroll already laid the foundation for his victory at the start when, from fourth place on the grid, he took the outside line through Tarzan corer to overtake all his rivals and take the lead. Nick Cassidy, who had started the race from pole position, just managed to save second place on the first few metres from Alessio Lorandi, who used Stroll’s slipstream to move up into third place. Maximilian Günther slotted into fourth place from Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing) and the best-placed rookie, Niko Kari (Motopark).
In the following minutes, Stroll pulled clear from his main rival Cassidy with fast lap times, so that he had a margin of five seconds over his team-mate from New Zealand after nine laps. At this time, fifth-placed Callum Ilott made a slight error: he briefly came off the track and lost contact to Maximilian Günther. The Brit, who is racing for Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing, quickly caught up again and continued to bide his chance to challenge the German for fourth. Until the finish on lap 23, Ilott tried again and again to overtake Günther, but the Prema driver defended his fourth place until the end.
Up front, Stroll drove an undisputed victory home, followed by Cassidy and Lorandi. Günther just saved fourth place from Ilott. Niko Kari was next up as the best-placed rookie from George Russell (HitechGP), Ryan Tveter (Carlin), second-best rookie Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing), and David Beckmann (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport), who took third place in the rookie classification.
Overall points – 18/30 races
Pos Driver Points
1 Stroll 259
2 Günther 203
3 Ilott 173
4 Cassidy 172
5 Russell 144
6 Barnicoat 102
7 Lorandi 95
8 Aron 94
9 Eriksson 93
10 Câmara 89
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