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Silverstone European F3: Esteban Ocon sweeps to commanding win

Esteban Ocon swept to a commanding victory in the second race of the Formula 3 European Championship's opening round at Silverstone

From pole position, the Lotus F1 Junior showed incredible pace on cold tyres to build up a 2.0 second lead within two laps, and was never threatened.

Nicholas Latifi and Antonio Fuoco chased Ocon home to make it a 1-2-3 for the Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes squad, Ferrari protege Fuoco taking advantage of his second excellent start of the weekend to vault Tom Blomqvist off the line and challenge Latifi for much of the race.

Frenchman Ocon's win moves him into the championship lead.

"I was a bit disappointed with my start in race one, but I took a good one this race," he said.

"It was all about keeping the tyres, more or less, keeping consistency and bringing the car home to victory."

Canadian Latifi was happy with his first European F3 podium, while Fuoco was also pleased, as he was the only one of the leading runners not to run any fresh Hankook tyres in this race.

Blomqvist lacked the speed he showed in winning race one, and his race was all about fending off Carlin stablemate Jordan King.

That was until Max Verstappen finally forced an opening just two laps from home, the Van Amersfoort Racing man depriving King of fifth place.

There was another three-car fight behind, with Ed Jones holding off Antonio Giovinazzi and Dennis van de Laar, who swapped places twice with two laps to go.

The final point, and Fortec Motorsport's first of the season, went to John Bryant-Meisner, who fended off an early attack from Lucas Auer and then held off Felipe Guimaraes.

Once again Mucke Motorsport's expected title contenders struggled, with Auer taking 12th and Felix Rosenqvist 14th.

There were only two non-finishers, with Spike Goddard out early after a clash with Roy Nissany and Hector Hurst retiring with one lap remaining.

       
Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                                  Time/Gap
 1.  Esteban Ocon         Prema Dallara-Mercedes              33m53.215s
 2.  Nicholas Latifi      Prema Dallara-Mercedes                 +3.678s
 3.  Antonio Fuoco        Prema Dallara-Mercedes                 +5.148s
 4.  Tom Blomqvist        Carlin Dallara-VW                      +9.264s
 5.  Max Verstappen       Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW              +11.237s
 6.  Jordan King          Carlin Dallara-VW                     +11.914s
 7.  Ed Jones             Carlin Dallara-VW                     +19.293s
 8.  Antonio Giovinazzi   Carlin Dallara-VW                     +20.649s
 9.  Dennis van de Laar   Prema Dallara-Mercedes                +21.877s
10.  John Bryant-Meisner  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes               +23.533s
11.  Felipe Guimares      Double R Dallara-Mercedes             +24.078s
12.  Lucas Auer           Mucke Dallara-Mercedes                +24.548s
13.  Gustavo Menezes      Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW              +30.106s
14.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Mercedes                +31.293s
15.  Felix Serralles      West-Tec Dallara Mercedes             +32.009s
16.  Mitch Gilbert        Fortec Dallara-Mercedes               +32.766s
17.  Jake Dennis          Carlin Dallara-VW                     +33.362s
18.  Alexander Toril      T-Sport Dallara-NBE                   +40.060s
19.  Tatiana Calderon     Jo Zeller Dallara-Mercedes            +46.004s
20.  Sean Gelael          Carlin Dallara-VW                     +48.528s
21.  Michele Beretta      EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes    +49.158s
22.  Roy Nissany          Mucke Dallara-Mercedes              +1m01.985s
23.  Riccardo Agostini    EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes  +1m02.208s
24.  Jules Szymkowiak     Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW            +1m03.172s

Retirements:

     Hector Hurst         West-Tec Dallara Mercedes              15 laps
     Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-NBE                     2 laps

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