Championship leader Joel Eriksson won the opening European Formula 3 race at Pau, holding off McLaren junior Lando Norris to take his third victory of the season.
Eriksson seized the lead on the opening lap, as he wrestled past Carlin’s Norris through Turn 1 and passed polesitter Callum Ilott when the British driver hit the wall at the Foch chicane.
Ilott’s team-mate Guanyu Zhou’s race was also ended prematurely, and the safety car was deployed for the first time, while his car was recovered.
Eriksson maintained his lead on the restart and he controlled the race despite constant pressure from Norris. The Swedish ace triumphing by 0.243 seconds.
Rookie Joey Mawson had been set for this maiden F3 podium finish but he was caught out by a small rain shower with just under seven minutes to go.
Jake Dennis also lost his car at Turn 7 at the same time, becoming the fifth retirement of the race and the third British driver to hit the barriers following Jake Hughes’ off a lap earlier.
The carnage promoted Maximilian Gunther into third place with Russian Nikita Mazepin came home in fourth, his best result of his F3 career so far.
Ralf Aron achieved his highest placed finish of the year with fifth place ahead of Harrison Newey and Pedro Piquet.
Mick Schumacher finished his first race at Pau in eighth position ahead of the Carlin duo of Ferdinand Habsburg and Jehan Daruvala who rounded out the top 10.
Eriksson’s victory helps to extend his championship lead to eight points over Norris.
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