Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala cruised to his first race win of the season in the third and final race of the Norisring weekend in European Formula Three. He took victory ahead of championship leader Maximillian Gunther as the German driver aimed to re-gain points lost in race two.
A relatively poor start for the poleman Gunther saw the Prema Powerteam driver fall to second place after turn one as India’s Jehan Daruvala slotted into the lead.
Race two winner Lando Norris also struggled off the line, dropping down from sixth on the grid to eighth before re-overtaking Guanyu Zhou and David Beckmann in the opening laps.
Force India academy driver Daruvala continued to lead in the early stages as he pulled away from Gunther, with Hitech’s Ralf Aron left to battle with the Carlin car of Ferdinand Habsburg for third place.
Jake Hughes pulled his Mercedes-powered Hitech into fourth after a simple move on Habsburg, and was swiftly followed through by fellow Brit Lando Norris.
A collision between Prema Powerteam’s Mick Schumacher and the Van Amersfoort Racing car of Pedro Piquet on lap four led to the race’s first full-course yellow, and brought about an early retirement for the German youngster.
Green flag racing eventually followed, signalling the beginning of a titanic battle between Norris and Hughes, who had collided in Saturday’s first race.
The battle was cut short by yet another full course yellow – this time caused by Tadasuke Makino’s race-ending collision with Harrison Newey at turn one. Newey was able to continue but dropped to 15th where he would eventually finish.
Norris and Hughes resumed their battle on the restart and, after several laps of pressure, Norris snatched fourth position from his fellow countryman setting up a pursuit of Ralf Aron and the final podium position.
A late mistake from Aron gave Norris an open invitation to a spot on the podium, which the Brit grabbed with both hands on the penultimate lap of the race.
Meanwhile, Daruvala held on comfortably to take 25 points and the race three win ahead of championship leader Maximillian Gunther with Lando Norris completing the top three.
Ralf Aron held onto fourth position ahead of Hitech team-mate Jake Hughes whilst the two Motopark cars of David Beckmann and Joel Eriksson finished sixth and seventh respectively.
The result means that Prema Powerteam driver Gunther will extend his lead in the championship over Joel Eriksson in second whilst a podium position for Norris sees him close in on the Swede.
