Harry Tincknell scores reversed-grid Formula 3 win at Norisring

Tincknell earned a breathing space on the opening lap as Serralles battled past first Pascal Wehrlein into the first corner, then Felix Rosenqvist when the Swede ran wide and brushed the wall exiting the S-bend.

Although Puerto Rican Serralles's Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes chased the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen of Devonian Tincknell, the cars were too evenly matched to make any headway.

"I bogged down a bit at the start," said Tincknell, "and I was a bit surprised that no one got past me. Then after that it was a case of pounding round. It was tricky because you had to stay on-line with all the DTM rubber, but I've got to be happy - I qualified 15th and I've ended up today with a win and a third [in the British F3 'class' in race one]!"

Wehrlein survived an assault from Prema's Sven Muller, then overtook Carlin's Will Buller and Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes team-mate Rosenqvist to take third, and the win in the F3 Euro Series classification. He closed in on Tincknell and Serralles, but ran out of laps to mount a challenge.

Rosenqvist, Buller and Tom Blomqvist (Ma-Con) flashed across the line very close together in the fight for fourth, with Carlin's Jack Harvey hard on their heels. Briton Harvey gained a stack of places by running around the outside of the hairpin on the first lap, and his third in the British F3 classification propels him into the championship lead.

Carlin's Pietro Fantin and Fortec's Alex Lynn managed to wriggle clear of the midfield to take fourth and fifth from the British F3 brigade, but pre-weekend points leader Jazeman Jaafar (Carlin) lost out amid the intense midfield struggle and could only claim seventh in the British field.

Meanwhile, Euro Series leader Daniel Juncadella charged from the back of the 28-car grid to take 11th for Prema. Along the way he passed fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (Carlin), whose miserable day ended with another retirement due to gearbox problems just over three laps from home.

Results - 22 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Harry Tincknell       Carlin Dallara-VW       20m10.193s
 2.  Felix Serralles       Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 0.419s
 3.  Pascal Wehrlein       Mucke Dallara-Merc        + 2.102s
 4.  Felix Rosenqvist      Mucke Dallara-Merc        + 4.715s
 5.  William Buller        Carlin Dallara-VW         + 4.840s
 6.  Tom Blomqvist         Ma-Con Dallara-VW         + 5.049s
 7.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW         + 7.098s
 8.  Pietro Fantin         Carlin Dallara-VW         + 8.522s
 9.  Alex Lynn             Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 9.059s
10.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Fortec Dallara-Merc      + 13.053s
11.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema Dallara-Merc       + 14.037s
12.  Sandro Zeller         Zeller Dallara-Merc      + 15.460s
13.  Michael Lewis         Prema Dallara-Merc       + 16.926s
14.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW        + 16.938s
15.  Geoff Uhrhane         Double R Dallara-Merc    + 18.904s
16.  Pipo Derani           Fortec Dallara-Merc      + 19.895s
17.  Raffaelle Marciello   Prema Dallara-Merc       + 20.496s
18.  Luis Sa Silva         Angola Dallara-Merc      + 22.182s
19.  Andrea Roda           Zeller Dallara-Merc      + 22.425s
20.  Lucas Wolf            URD Dallara-Merc         + 22.843s
21.  Philip Ellis          GU Dallara-Merc          + 38.530s
22.  Spike Goddard         T-Sport Dallara-Mugen    + 40.608s
23.  Duvashen Padayachee   Double R Dallara-Mugen   + 51.078s
24.  Nick McBride          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan     + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Carlos Sainz Jr       Carlin Dallara-VW          18 laps
     Sven Muller           Prema Dallara-Merc          6 laps
     Fahmi Ilyas           Double R Dallara-Merc        1 lap
     Emil Bernstorff       Ma-Con Dallara-VW           0 laps