Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam) established the maximum results so far and grabbed the first position in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. Starting on Friday, the Spanish earned double pole for the first and second race, and then drove to a convincing victory on a hot and sunny Nurburgring on Saturday, the 18th of August. Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam), who entered the seventh round as the leader in the rankings, saw his vantage change in a 13.5 point gap to the now leading Juncadella.
Fights at the start
Although Juncadella had a clean start, Sven Muller had an even better pace and chose the outside of the first corner to make a move on his Prema Powerteammate. The outside line proved to be too wide, disabling him from getting past and needed to settle for second. From that moment on, the 21-year-old Spanish driver was able to built on a gap. Just behind the two front runners, Pascal Wehrlein (Mucke Motorsport) made the most of his first meters and managed to pass Felix Rosenqvist for third position.
Gaps come and go
During the first eight laps, Juncadella steadily built on a progressing gap towards the other sixteen competitors. In the ninth lap however, he made a mistake on his own account and almost saw his race lost in the second sector of the racetrack. It decreased his gap back to only 1.5 second towards rookie Sven Muller, who got another chance to follow the leaders pace.
A little further on in the top ten, there was an ongoing battle for ninth position between William Buller (Carlin Motorsport) and Tom Blomqvist (ma-con Motorsport), not leaving each other more space than absolutely necessary for a fair fight. Remarkable was the performance of Alexander Sims (Threebond with T-sport) with a Nissan powered car. The Japanese manufacturer proved to deliver an engine with high top speeds, setting the fastest times in the first sector of the Nurburgring circuit.
Fourth win for Juncadella
The last phase of the 40 minutes run saw a progressing advantage for Daniel Juncadella, who finally crossed the finish line with a 5.405 second gap to Sven Muller, who scored his first podium in a long race of the Formula 3 Euro Series. Pascal Wehrlein drove to a third place, securing important points for his championship ranking.
Race 2 follows at 11.15 on Sunday morning the 18th of August.
All races are available on live timing and streaming via http://www.f3euroseries.com/live/ and http://www.f3euroseries.com/livestream/
Result Race 1:
1. Juncadella in 29 laps and 40 minutes and 45.981 seconds, 2. Muller + 5.405, 3. Wehrlein + 7.854, 4. Rosenqvist +8.590, 5. Jaafar + 16.973, 6. Marciello + 17.646, 7. Sainz + 18.739, 8. Sims + 19.950, 9. Blomqvist + 25.864, 10. Buller + 29.823, 11. Bernstorff + 30.134, 12. Wolf + 38.842, 13. Roda + 39.943, 14. Sa Silva + 44.075, 15. Lewis + 44.751, 16. Zeller + 56.248, 17. Goddard 1 lap