Mercedes’ DTM reserve and test driver Maximilian Guenther inherited victory in the Pau Grand Prix after Lando Norris crashed out of the race with nine minutes remaining.
McLaren junior Norris led from pole, diving in front of Guenther on the right-hand side of the track at the start. He dominated and set many fastest lap times in the first half of the race, looking set for glory until a suspected front suspension failure caused a crash at Turn 7, the Foch chicane.
Norris was the third driver to crash at a similar position, after David Beckmann – who caused a safety car period due to his incident – and Keyvan Andres Soori. This meant that he failed to win at a round for the first time in the series, and failed to do so racing a full-time season for the first time since last October’s final round of the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship.
Guenther picked up the pieces to win by 1.952 seconds ahead of Prema team-mate Callum Ilott and Hitech’s Ralf Aron. It was his second straight victory and he became the first driver in 2017 to win twice at one round in the process.
Harrison Newey – son of Formula 1 designer Adrian – claimed his joint-best F3 finish in fourth ahead of Joel Eriksson.
Eriksson’s haul of 10 points moves him level with Norris at the top of the Drivers’ Championship, while Guenther has cut a huge deficit to move just two points adrift of the Brit.
Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg finished sixth ahead of Tadasuke Marino, who took the first F3 points of his career. Pedro Piquet – son of F1 champion Nelson – completed the race ahead of Jake Dennis and Ferrari protege Guanyu Zhou.
Force India academy driver Jehan Daruvala took the rookie victory in 11th, finishing just 0.5s ahead of fellow rookie Mick Schumacher – son of F1 champion Michael. Marino Sato was the final driver to finish the race.
