Lando Norris took his third victory of the Formula 3 European Championship season, and his first in ten races, with a charging drive in race two at the Norisring.
The Briton qualified fourth and once again suffered from a poor start that briefly dropped him behind Carlin team-mate Jehan Daruvala. Superlative skill on the brakes meant he kept fourth, but he could not shake off Daruvala during the opening few laps,
Ahead of Norris were Hitech duo Ralf Aron and Jake Hughes, and championship leader Maximilian Gunther.
Despite the width of the Norisring street circuit inviting overtaking attempts, there was still moisture off line going into the iconic Grundig hairpin at the end of the pit straight.
This was especially apparent when Norris kicked up spray on one lap, and was likely a factor in Gunther?s failure to get past Hughes for the first half of the race.
Norris, who in turn could not get past Gunther during that time, was handed third when the German locked up at the Dutzendteich hairpin on the 18th lap of 42.
He wasted no time in clearing Hughes, who left too much space for Norris on the run to the Grundig Kehre on lap 22 and was overtaken with ease.
Polesitter Aron had benefited from the small tussles behind, extending his one second lead by six tenths. Norris was the faster of the two though, and whittled down the gap tenth by tenth until he was right on the Estonian?s gearbox.
This was now the hard bit for Norris, with Aron defending his lead with every inch of the track. On lap 37 Norris tried slipstreaming past Aron before throwing a dummy as the Estonian chopped across to defend the inside line.
Although unable to use the outside line to get past, a superior exit from the Grundig Kehre meant Norris was alongside and almost ahead through the fast Scholler Esses. He looked to have made the move but as he approached the kerbing of the second turn it was clear he was going to be squeezed into the wall and he backed off just enough to avoid the wall and losing time.
Norris got another run at the Dutzendteich Kehre and this Aron couldn?t defend it, with Norris moving into the lead with only a few minutes to go. Their battle had allowed Hughes to close back in a margin of what had grown to be a over a second, and after a lockup from his team-mate took second place on the next lap.
Aron looked to fight back but a damaged wing meant a loss of downforce and after running wide at the Grundig Kehre he featured no more in the battle for the podium.
Gunther was now back up to third place, and he held off Daruvala to take his eighth podium of the season and extend his championship lead.
Aron hung on to fifth, ahead of early front-runner Pedro Piquet, Harrison Newey and Guan Yu Zhou. The battle for ninth in the race was between title contenders Joel Eriksson and Callum Ilott, with Eriksson succumbing to his rival with two laps to go.
Race 2 results (42 laps)
1 Lando Norris Carlin 34m15.834s
2 Jake Hughes Hitech +1.134s
3 Maximilian Gunther Prema +2.176s
4 Jehan Daruvala Carlin +3.378s
5 Ralf Aron Hitech +4.167s
6 Pedro Piquet VAR +4.554s
7 Harrison Newey VAR +5.074s
8 Guan Yu Zhou Prema +5.624s
9 Callum Ilott Prema +6.504s
10 Joel Eriksson Motopark +7.848s
11 David Beckmann Motopark +12.503s
12 Mick Schumacher Prema +12.554s
13 Joey Mawson VAR +14.198s
14 Tadasuke Makino Hitech +14.923s
15 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin +18.351s
16 Marino Sato Motopark +19.733s
17 Keyvan Andres Motopark +22.577s
18 Nikita Mazepin Hitech +1 lap
Championship Standings
1 Gunther 218 ??2 Eriksson 196 ??3 Norris 183 ??4 Ilott 164 ??5 Zhou 84 ??6 Daruvala 81 ??7 Hughes 78 ??8 Newey 67 ??9 Aron 58 ??10 Schumacher 55