Home Featured Juri Vips resists new FIA F3 leader Jehan Daruvala for Silverstone win

Juri Vips resists new FIA F3 leader Jehan Daruvala for Silverstone win

by Peter Allen

Juri Vips held off new FIA Formula 3 Championship leader Jehan Daruvala to take his second straight race one win at Silverstone.

Red Bull junior Vips made a good getaway from pole position to keep the lead as Daruvala immediately got ahead of second-placed starter Marcus Armstrong.

Armstrong was quickly pushed back to fifth, with Christian Lundgaard driving around his outside in the first corner before Leonardo Pulcini also followed past.

A fired-up Lundgaard then tried and failed to pass Daruvala for second on the outside into the right-hander at Maggots, and instead had to rebuff Pulcini, who dropped back behind Armstrong in the process.

All that helped Vips to build a one-second lead over Daruvala on lap one, but the top two were right together by lap four of 20.

Following a virtual safety car to recover debutant Federico Malvestiti?s car from against the pit wall, Daruvala posted the fastest lap on lap nine and forced Vips to defend the inside on the next tour into Brooklands and Stowe.

Daruvala tried again on the outside into Brooklands on the following lap but this time ran wide, allowing Armstrong ? who got back ahead Lundgaard on lap six ? alongside him through Luffield and Woodcote.

A lengthy safety car period following a crash for Raoul Hyman at Copse preceded a five-lap run to the flag, where Vips made a great restart, setting a new fastest lap and moving 1.1 seconds clear. Daruvala moved back within the DRS range before it was re-activated, but Vips was able to keep him out of reach and sealed the win by 0.8 seconds.

Armstrong finished just half a second behind Daruvala, while Pulcini held off Robert Shwartzman for fourth. Fifth for Shwartzman would have been enough for him to jointly keep hold of the championship lead, but Daruvala, in fact, moves ahead by two points by setting the fastest lap of the top 10 finishers.

Lundgaard faltered to seventh late on, passed by Shwartzman and Pedro Piquet down the Hangar Straight on consecutive laps. Liam Lawson just held on to the reverse-grid pole for race two in eighth place, running wide in the very last corner as he stayed ahead of Jake Hughes.

Alex Peroni charged from 21st on the grid to take the final point in 10th, half a second in front of David Beckmann. Logan Sargeant was surging towards the points places in the early laps from 16th on the grid, but came together with Niko Kari over 10th at Brooklands on lap five, forcing both to pit with front wing and tyre damage respectively.

 

Race results (20 laps)
Pos Name Team Time
1 Juri Vips Hitech GP 41m12.477s
2 Jehan Daruvala Prema +0.811s
3 Marcus Armstrong Prema +1.313s
4 Leonardo Pulcini Hitech GP +1.938s
5 Robert Shwartzman Prema +2.236s
6 Pedro Piquet Trident +5.301s
7 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix +6.835s
8 Liam Lawson MP Motorsport +7.106s
9 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab +7.305s
10 Alex Peroni Campos Racing +8.316s
11 David Beckmann ART Grand Prix +8.836s
12 Ye Yifei Hitech GP +9.262s
13 Felipe Drugovich Carlin +11.261s
14 Yuki Tsunoda Jenzer Motorsport +13.704s
15 Lirim Zendelli Sauber Junior Team by Charouz +14.605s
16 Fabio Scherer Sauber Junior Team by Charouz +15.933s
17 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport +18.527s
18 Niko Kari Trident +19.339s
19 Max Fewtrell ART Grand Prix +19.845s
20 Sebastian Fernandez Campos Racing +20.055s
21 Keyvan Andres HWA Racelab +20.569s
22 Bent Viscaal HWA Racelab +21.268s
23 Andreas Estner Jenzer Motorsport +21.519s
24 Simo Laaksonen MP Motorsport +21.778s
25 Teppei Natori Carlin +21.944s
26 Logan Sargeant Carlin +28.790s
27 Delvin Defrancesco Trident +55.456s
Ret Raoul Hyman Sauber Junior Team by Charouz
Ret Federico Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport
Ret Alessio Deledda Campos Racing
Fastest lap: Sargeant, 1m45.692 (Daruvala gets fastest lap points)

Championship Standings
1
?Daruvala 102? ?2?Shwartzman 100? ?3 Vips 92? ?4 Armstrong 69? ?5?Piquet 42? ?6?Fewtrell 37??7?Hughes 31? ?8?Lundgaard 30? ?9?Pulcini 20? ?10?Kari 15