Prema Powerteam’s Maximilian Gunther rounded out his 2017 European Formula 3 season with a lights to flag victory at Hockenheim. But a win wasn’t enough to put him second in the championship standings, with a second place in the final race for Joel Eriksson securing the position.
A strong start allowed Gunther to build up a gap to the rest of the field, at one point nearly five seconds ahead of second place. Though Eriksson began to close the gap late in the race, he could only manage a small dent in the Prema driver’s lead. Gunther finished 3.5s ahead of Eriksson, who was more than 10 seconds ahead of third. It was enough to put him five points ahead of Gunther in the championship standings, taking second behind Lando Norris.
Norris finished the final race of his rookie season in F3 fourth. A poor get away for front row stater Callum Ilott allowed him to jump up fifth off of the line, behind Jake Hughes. Norris passed Hughes after a brief full course yellow period, which was brought out to clear Ferdinand Habsburg’s car after the Carlin driver collided with Marino Sato.
Next in Norris’ sights was Guanyu Zhou, but the Prema driver maintained a gap just big enough to keep Norris at bay. He finished half a second ahead of Norris, taking his fifth podium of the season.
Ilott finished fifth ahead of Hughes.
Nikita Mazepin had been running seventh after overtaking Pedro Piquet shortly after the full course yellows, but the move was disallowed and the HitechGP driver forced to give the position back. Piquet took seventh, ahead of Mazepin, who held off attacks from Joey Mawson in ninth.
David Beckmann rounded out the top 10.
Juri Vips, in only his first round racing in the championship, was the best of those late to the series, finishing 13th behind Tadasuke Makino and Harrison Newey.
