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Marciello scores another lights-to-flag victory at Nurburgring

by Valentin Khorounzhiy

Photo: FIA Formula 3 European Championship / Thomas Suer

Championship leader Raffaele Marciello continued to utterly dominate the European F3 round at Nurburgring, converting another pole position start into a victory in the second race of the weekend.

Marciello shared the front row of the grid with his main rival in the standings – Mucke’s Felix Rosenqvist, but, whilst the Prema junior got away from the grid nicely, his Swedish rival was a lot less fortunate, briefly stalling the car and tumbling all the way down the order.

With the main threat out of contention, it was smooth sailing for Marciello from that point on, as the Italian immediately started building up the gap to Fortec’s Pipo Derani, as the Brazilian found himself preoccupied with defending P2 from Alexander Sims.

On lap 14, Marciello’s massive advantage was evaporated due to a safety car period, caused by Roy Nissany spinning off-track and attempting to rejoin in an unsafe manner, which ended with him being collected by an unlucky Lucas Wolf.

However, the subsequent restart and sprint to the finish did not prove too challenging for the Ferrari junior, who wrapped up his ninth victory of the season.

Derani held Sims back to take second place, achieving his first podium in the series. Jordan King and Lucas Auer repeated their results from race one, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Sven Muller, who was narrowly keeping Alex Lynn behind prior to the restart, managed to gain a position after the safety car came in, as the German robbed Felix Serralles of sixth place with an elegant pass round the outside. The Briton soon followed through, but Muller kept sixth at the flag, with Serralles closing out the top eight.

A masterful recovery drive from Rosenqvist saw him break into the top ten in the closing stages of the race. He finished in ninth after clawing the spot away from Harry Tincknell, with the Carlin driver rounding out the points.

Race results
Pos. Driver Team Time/Gap
1 Raffaele Marciello Prema Powerteam 25 laps in 36:17.972
2 Pipo Derani Fortec +5.466
3 Alexander Sims ThreeBond/T-Sport +6.159
4 Jordan King Carlin +6.841
5 Lucas Auer Prema Powerteam +9.159
6 Sven Muller ma-con +11.045
7 Alex Lynn Prema Powerteam +11.382
8 Felix Serralles Fortec +12.637
9 Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Motorsport +17.272
10 Harry Tincknell Carlin +18.453
11 Michael Lewis Mucke Motorsport +19.214
12 Tom Blomqvist EuroInternational +19.545
13 Daniil Kvyat Carlin +20.426
14 Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Motorsport +20.849
15 Eddie Cheever Prema Powerteam +21.412
16 Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Racing +21.907
17 Nicholas Latifi Carlin +22.442
18 Sean Gelael Double R Racing +23.002
19 Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort +23.892
20 Tatiana Calderon Double R Racing +25.460
21 Spike Goddard ThreeBond/T-Sport +27.425
22 Andre Rudersdorf ma-con +27.758
23 Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Racing +1:00.931
Not classified
Roy Nissany Mucke Motorsport +12 laps
Lucas Wolf URD Rennsport +12 laps
Jann Mardenborough Carlin +24 laps