Juncadella dominates opening F3 Euro Series race at Nurburgring
Daniel Juncadella took a dominant victory in the first Formula 3 Euro Series race at the Nurburgring on Saturday morning to increase his championship lead over Raffaele Marciello to 20.5 points
From pole position, Juncadella was challenged into the first corner by fellow front-row starter Felix Rosenqvist, but the Swede's move around the outside was unsuccessful and dropped him back to fourth spot.
That gave Prema Powerteam driver Juncadella the breathing space he needed over his team-mate Sven Muller, the Spaniard gradually moving away and eventually taking his Dallara-Mercedes to a five-second victory.
Muller's result was exceptional, the German having broken his right arm just three weeks ago at Spa. Behind him came Mucke Motorsport's Pascal Wehrlein, who was never realistically challenged by his team-mate Rosenqvist after passing him into Turn 2.
Jazeman Jaafar, who is not registered for Euro Series points, was the best-placed of the Carlin drivers and the highest finisher among the Volkswagen-engined contingent in fifth. One spot behind him was Marciello, who lost the lead of the FIA European F3 Championship to Juncadella as a result.
Carlos Sainz Jr finished seventh for Carlin, the Spaniard driving the entire race under intense pressure from Alexander Sims. The British driver's eighth spot means he will start the reversed-grid second race from pole position for T-Sport.
The only change of position inside the top 10 once the opening lap had been completed came when Ma-con's Tom Blomqvist passed Carlin's Will Buller for ninth with a handful of laps to go.
Results - 29 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Daniel Juncadella Prema Dallara-Merc 40m45.981s 2. Sven Muller Prema Dallara-Merc + 5.405s 3. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc + 7.854s 4. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc + 8.590s 5. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 16.973s 6. Raffaelle Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc + 17.646s 7. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW + 18.739s 8. Alexander Sims T-Sport Dallara-Nissan + 19.950s 9. Tom Blomqvist Ma-con Dallara-VW + 25.864s 10. Will Buller Carlin Dallara-VW + 29.823s 11. Emil Bernstorff Ma-con Dallara-VW + 30.134s 12. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc + 38.842s 13. Andrea Roda Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc + 39.943s 14. Luis Sa Silva Angola Dallara-Merc + 44.075s 15. Michael Lewis Prema Dallara-Merc + 44.751s 16. Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc + 56.248s 17. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 1 lap
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments