Photo: F3 Euro Series
Young Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello made it four wins in the space of two weekends by coming out on top of two of the F3 Euro Series races at Brands Hatch…
Raffaele Marciello dominated proceedings at Pau last weekend, and he would finish the Brands Hatch meeting on top as well. His Prema teammate and title favourite Daniel Juncadella claimed pole in qualifying for both the first and third races, but Marciello got the jump on him at the start of the first race. The Spaniard remained close throughout the race but couldn’t stop Marciello from winning.
American Michael Lewis scored his best result of the year so far by completing a 1-2-3 finish for Prema. Carlos Sainz Jr was fourth, ahead of Germans Pascal Wehrlein and Sven Muller. Felix Rosenqvist and Jazeman Jaafar took seventh and eighth places.
British F3 regular Jaafar successfully converted reverse grid pole into victory in race two, finally securing his first F3 win in his third campaign in the category. Muller finished right behind him, while fellow Formel ADAC Masters graduate Pascal Wehrlein was third. Lewis, Rosenqvist and Sainz were next up, with Marciello seventh. Juncadella was only 12th after another shoddy getaway.
Marciello again overcame Juncadella in race three. The Astana-backed driver made a good start this time, but was given a drive-through for being in front of his grid slot. This allowed Marciello to comfortably win by 15 seconds over Will Buller and Lewis. Sainz was fourth ahead of Wehrlein and British F3 runner Harry Tincknell, with Tom Blomqvist and Juncadella completing the top eight.
Juncadella leads Marciello by a point in the Euro Series standings with Sainz four further points behind. Marciello has scored four wins on the bounce in FIA European Championship-qualifying races, and therefore leads those standings by 22 and 24 points over Sainz and Juncadella respectively. Both series resume at the Red Bull Ring on 2/3 June, where Sainz will hope to do well at his backer’s own circuit.