Motopark’s Joel Eriksson won the opening European Formula 3 race at Hockenheim, beating Lando Norris who wrapped up the drivers’ championship with two races still to go.
Eriksson, who started third on the grid, capitalised on a poor start for Norris to leap into second before passing poleman Callum Ilott later on the opening lap.
Ilott collided with Norris on the exit of Turn 8 while dicing for second place. This allowed Norris’ Carlin team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg to jump into second.
The Austrian would lose the place to Norris just a few laps later when the British slid down the inside at the hairpin.
Norris couldn’t make any further progress, as Eriksson maintained an advantage of just over a second for the majority of the race. At the flag, the Swede won by 0.725 seconds.
Habsburg claimed the final podium position ahead of Ilott. Jehan Daruvala was fifth, with Nikita Mazepin, Pedro Piquet and Ralf Aron completed the top eight positions.
Norris’ main title rival Maximilian Gunther started down in 12th and could only climb to 10th behind Hitech Grand Prix’s Tadasuke Makino. Eriksson jumps into second in the drivers’ championship, demoting Gunther to third.
Mick Schumacher missed out on a point by less than a second. Jake Hughes was 12th.
On his F3 debut, Felipe Drugovich was 16th with the man who beat him to the ADAC F4 title Juri Vips down in 21st.
