Hockenheim European F3: Max Verstappen takes maiden F3 win

The 16-year-old Dutchman became the youngest driver ever to win a race in the series in just his sixth weekend in car racing, after four 'warm-up' events in the Florida Winter Series earlier this year.

The win for Verstappen's Dallara-Volkswagen was also the first for the Dutch Van Amersfoort Racing team in European F3.

Verstappen built up a 1.6-second advantage on the opening lap from Esteban Ocon, but after two laps the race went under the safety car owing to early incidents, one of which eliminated fastest qualifier Tom Blomqvist, who had started 11th due to an engine-change penalty.

Ocon kept the gap at around a second for most of the race after the restart, but in turn he had to be wary of the hovering Antonio Fuoco, his team-mate in the Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes squad.

Fuoco reversed a difficult weekend, inheriting a podium spot after Felix Rosenqvist's troubled season continued when he pulled off the track on the sixth lap with an engine problem.

This moved Antonio Giovinazzi up to fourth, but the Italian could not fend off Lucas Auer, who speared down the inside into the Mercedes Arena with five laps remaining. Jake Dennis shadowed the pair for most of the race to take sixth place.

Jordan King showed great overtaking skill from 19th on the grid. He made up three places within a couple of corners after the safety car and finished seventh.

A spate of drive-through penalties for track-limits offences affected, most significantly, Ed Jones and Mitch Gilbert, who were both running in the points.

As those drivers went through the pitlane, that elevated Sean Gelael to eighth, only for the Indonesian to have to stop to replace a front wing damaged in the early stages.

Up to eighth, therefore, came Roy Nissany, with Gustavo Menezes and Riccardo Agostini completing the points scorers.

Results - 22 laps:

Pos Driver               Car                              Time/Gap
 1. Max Verstappen       Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW        35m44.690s
 2. Esteban Ocon         Prema Dallara-Merc               +0.860s
 3. Antonio Fuoco        Prema Dallara-Merc               +1.777s
 4. Lucas Auer           Mucke Dallara-Merc               +6.141s
 5. Antonio Giovinazzi   Carlin Dallara-VW                +6.842s
 6. Jake Dennis          Carlin Dallara-VW                +7.608s
 7. Jordan King          Carlin Dallara-VW                +11.840s
 8. Roy Nissany          Mucke Dallara-Merc               +25.411s
 9. Gustavo Menezes      Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW        +26.429s
10. Riccardo Agostini    Eurointernational Dallara-Merc   +29.114s
11. Sandro Zeller        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc           +31.388s
12. Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-NBE              +31.920s
13. Dennis van de Laar   Prema Dallara-Merc               +33.068s
14. Mitchell Gilbert     Fortec Dallara-Merc              +34.771s
15. Ed Jones             Carlin Dallara-VW                +37.417s
16. Jules Szymkowiak     Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW        +43.406s
17. Hector Hurst         West-Tec Dallara-Merc            +46.997s
18. Tatiana Calderon     Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc           +49.364s
19. John Bryant-Meisner  Fortec Dallara-Merc              +50.264s
20. Alexander Toril      T-Sport Dallara-NBE              +52.330s
21. Michele Beretta      Eurointernational Dallara-Merc   +1m02.206s
22. Sean Gelael          Carlin Dallara-VW                +1m06.593s

Retirements/not classified

    Nicholas Latifi      Prema Dallara-Merc               12 laps
    Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc               5 laps
    Felipe Guimaraes     Double R Dallara-Merc            5 laps
    Tom Blomqvist        Carlin Dallara-VW                1 lap
    Felix Serralles      West-Tec Dallara-Merc            1 lap