Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke Motorsport) claimed victory in the 21st season round of the Formula 3 Euro Series.
At the 4.005 kilometres long Circuit Ricardo Tormo near the Spanish city of Valencia, the Swede took the lead at the start and won from Spaniard Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam) and Italian Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam).
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- Temperature track: 35.2 °C
- Temperature air: 20.8°C
With his second podium finish in his home event, Juncadella defended his lead in the Formula 3 Euro Series drivers’ standings, Pascal Wehrlein (Mücke Motorsport) is second, followed by Marciello.
The race was already decided on the first metres: in the dash towards the first corner, Felix Rosenqvist overtook Daniel Juncadella, who had started from pole position. While in the lead, the Mücke driver pulled clear from Juncadella and took the flag after 27 laps with a margin of 5.472 seconds. Behind third-placed Raffaele Marciello, Pascal Wehrlein finished as the best rookie in fourth place.
One weekend before the end of the season, the Prema Powerteam claimed an early title in the Formula 3 Euro Series teams’ classification. A pair of victories achieved by Marciello and Lewis and four more podium finishes were enough for the Italian team to wrap it up at Valencia.
Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke Motorsport): “The start was just like in the first race, apart from the fact that I didn’t get a drive-through penalty this time. My car was good and I kept attacking until the end of the race.”
Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam): “First of all, I have to say that Felix has deserved victory here. His start was better than mine and his speed in the race was better than mine, too. He has done a great job. I am not really happy, because today, my car wasn’t as good as yesterday. But I have scored many points by finishing second and now I have good chances to secure the title in the finale at Hockenheim.”
Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam): “Today, my car oversteered a lot. Nevertheless, I finished the race in third place ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, my rival for runner-up spot in the Formula 3 Euro Series drivers’ standings.”
source: Formula 3 Euro Series, f3euroseries.com
THE REVENGE OF ROSENQVIST
Felix Rosenqvist (Mucke Motorsport) has won the last race of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. The young Swede repeated his excellent start of yesterday, but where Saturday left him with 0 points, he managed to turn his fast pace into a convincing victory on Sunday the 30th of September. Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam) chose the safe option and scored another second position, as teammate Raffaele Marciello completed the podium with a third place.
First lap is the key
Today it was Daniel Juncadella starting from pole position on his home track in finally sunny Spain. Felix Rosenqvist was next to him and burning to make up for the blank result of yesterday, as he then received a drive through penalty for taking the wrong starting position. After the lights shut off, Juncadella and Rosenqvist headed for the first corner side by side. The Mucke Motorsport driver had more speed on board and left the turn in the lead. The first lap of the race turned out to be decisive in this race, as overtaking is a challenge on this motorbike track.
Getting passed requires guts
The first fight of the day was for third position between Raffaele Marciello and Pascal Wehrlein. Although Marciello suffered from oversteer during the entire race, he managed to keep the German driver behind him. The counter clock wise race track offers a lot of runoff area, which was thankfully used by all drivers in their aim to fight their way forward. Race control awarded many drivers with warning flags and eventual drive through penalties for not respecting the track limits.
Carlos Sainz (Carlin) and Tom Blomqvist (ma-con Motorsport) provided the Spanish audience with a show for the sixth place. Both sons of famous rally drivers started chasing after one another in the seventh lap as Blomqvist never left Sainz’ tail. Blomqvist turned out to be the faster one in Valencia, and passed Sainz just before the drivers touched the half way point of the 18th round of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship.
Michael Lewis and William Buller spiced up the 40-minute race with a long-lasting battle for eighth position. It was the American participant of the FIA Young Driver Excellence Programme who made some interesting moves with the aim to overtake the Carlin driver. After a lot of overtaking each other and leaving track in due course, Lewis finally succeeded in the 13th lap and stayed in front of Buller for the remaining time of the race.
Conservative driving in front
Meanwhile, Felix Rosenqvist was showing all other drivers he was the fastest by far. After he pulled a 1.8 second gap towards Juncadella in only the first lap, he let the distance grow. After 17 laps, the advantage was at almost four seconds. Both Prema Powerteam drivers Juncadella and Marciello also claimed afterwards that they were not taking any risks to be able to score important points for their top positions in the rankings. It resulted in an obvious and deserved win for Felix Rosenqvist, who surely made up for a missing result on Saturday.
Title awaits in Hockenheim
Rosenqvist made a jump in the FIA European Formula 3 rankings but is no threat to the firm lead of Juncadella. The Spanish talent has a 30.5 point lead over his Italian teammate Marciello, who is the only one still forming a small danger to Juncadella’s 2012 title. When asked for his expectation of the final round, Juncadella calmly explained everything is in place to take the victory in Hockenheim, where he scored two victories already earlier this year.
The last and 10th round of the FIA European Formula 3 championship is scheduled for 20th and 21st of October at the Hockenheimring in Badem Wurttemberg, Germany.
Result Race 2:
1. Felix Rosenqvist* in 27 laps, 39 minutes and 7.352 seconds, 2. Daniel Juncadella* + 5.472, 3. Raffaele Marciello* + 14.968, 4. Pascal Wehrlein* +18.734, 5. Tom Blomqvist* +22.385, 6. Carlos Sainz* +36.594, 7. Emil Bernstorff* +36.847, 8. Michael Lewis* +37.694, 9. William Buller* +48.128, 10. Andrea Roda* +52.059, 11. Sandro Zeller +1:02.392, 12. Lucas Wolf* + 1:06.762, 13. Sven Muller* 1:11.599, 14. Luis Sa Silva* + 1 lap
All drivers marked with * are registered for the FIA European Formula 3 Championship.
Standings of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship:
1. Juncadella 240 points, 2. Marciello 209.5, 3. Sainz Jr 161, 4. Wehrlein 145, 5. Rosenqvist 142, 6. Buller 129, 7. Blomqvist 99, 8. Lewis 98, 9. Muller 91, 10. Bernstorff 64, 11. Wolf 15, 12. Roda 8, 13. Sa Silva 7
source: www.fia.com