Daniel Juncadella wins frantic Norising Formula 3 race as Pietro Fantin tops British brigade

The Spaniard got the best start from the second row of the grid and dived inside polesitting Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes team-mate Raffaele Marciello to take the lead at the first corner. Marciello ran wide and was elbowed down to fifth.

Juncadella held off a mid-race challenge from Pascal Wehrlein before eking out a small gap again, but slipped up when he outbraked himself at the final turn, losing the lead to the Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes.

After trailing Wehrlein for five laps, Juncadella lunged down the inside into the hairpin, punting the unfortunate German wide and damaging his left-rear corner. Marciello, who had recovered to third, then got a run on Juncadella out of the turn, but the two made contact and the Italian crashed at the exit of the followed S-bend.

That promoted William Buller to second, and the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen man may be elevated to victory depending on the result of enquiries into Juncadella's incidents.

Whatever happens, Carlin already has a victory, as Brazilian Pietro Fantin topped the British F3 field, chasing Emil Bernstorff's Ma-Con Motorsport car throughout and taking fourth overall. Behind him, Felix Serralles (Fortec Motorsport) kept Fantin in sight throughout but never got close enough to challenge.

Harry Tincknell, whose Carlin Dallara sported a brave rear-wing set-up with only a lower plane, completed the top three from British F3.

There was chaos among the other British F3 runners. Jack Harvey locked up at the first turn and punted Carlin team-mate Jazeman Jaafar into Fortec's Alex Lynn. While Jaafar and Lynn rejoined a lap down after pitstops, Harvey was given a drive-through penalty. Carlos Sainz Jr also crashed on the first lap after going off-line at the S-bend while battling with Michael Lewis.

Meanwhile, Pipo Derani (Fortec) was hit out of the race by Prema driver Lewis a few laps into the action, while Derani's team-mate Hannes van Asseldonk spent most of the race with his rear wing hanging off after being hit by Seralles at the first corner.

All this promoted Australians Geoff Uhrhane (Double R Racing) and Nick McBride (T-Sport) to fourth and fifth positions in the British F3 classification, the duo running in a frantic midfield fight for most of the race.

Results - 42 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema Dallara-Merc      37m11.584s
 2.  Will Buller           Carlin Dallara-VW         + 1.854s
 3.  Emil Bernstorff       Ma-Con Dallara-VW         + 2.963s
 4.  Pietro Fantin         Carlin Dallara-VW         + 3.574s
 5.  Felix Serralles       Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 4.868s
 6.  Felix Rosenqvist      Mucke Dallara-Merc        + 6.152s
 7.  Pascal Wehrlein       Mucke Dallara-Merc       + 13.241s
 8.  Harry Tincknell       Carlin Dallara-VW        + 13.671s
 9.  Sven Muller           Prema Dallara-Merc       + 13.949s
10.  Tom Blomqvist         Ma-Con Dallara-VW        + 14.538s
11.  Sandro Zeller         Zeller Dallara-Merc      + 20.855s
12.  Geoff Uhrhane         Double R Dallara-Merc    + 21.832s
13.  Nick McBride          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan   + 22.399s
14.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW        + 22.637s
15.  Luis Sa Silva         Angola Dallara-Merc      + 23.242s
16.  Andrea Roda           Zeller Dallara-Merc        + 1 lap
17.  Spike Goddard         T-Sport Dallara-Mugen      + 1 lap
18.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW          + 1 lap
19.  Alex Lynn             Fortec Dallara-Merc        + 1 lap
20.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Fortec Dallara-Merc        + 1 lap
21.  Duvashen Padayachee   Double R Dallara-Mugen    + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Raffaelle Marciello   Prema Dallara-Merc         39 laps
     Philip Ellis          GU Dallara-Merc            17 laps
     Fahmi Ilyas           Double R Dallara-Merc       7 laps
     Michael Lewis         Prema Dallara-Merc          7 laps
     Pipo Derani           Fortec Dallara-Merc         6 laps
     Carlos Sainz Jr       Carlin Dallara-VW            1 lap
     Lucas Wolf            URD Dallara-Merc            0 laps