European F3 Pau: Jake Dennis wins again in race two
Jake Dennis continued his superb weekend in Pau by taking his second win of the day in the Formula 3 European Championship
Dennis led all the way in a chaotic race that first went three times under the safety car, and was even red-flagged before an eight-minute resumption to the finish, which began under the inevitable safety car, making its fourth appearance of the race.
The Racing Steps-backed 2012 McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner said it was much easier this time, and that was principally because another bad start from front-row partner Charles Leclerc allowed Maximilian Gunther into second place.
After an early safety car, caused by Matt Solomon hitting the wall at Pont Oscar, German rookie Gunther kept at bay a train comprising Leclerc, Antonio Giovinazzi and Arjun Maini as Dennis raced clear to a comfortable lead in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes.
Leclerc, driving with one eye on points, couldn't get into position to make a move on Gunther, before the rhythm of the race was disrupted on the 15th lap when the safety car appeared again, due to Julio Moreno being parked half on the track, half on the pavement on the approach to the Lycee hairpin.
The race had just restarted when Alessio Lorandi, battling in the midfield after stalling at the start, dived down the inside of Michele Beretta at Lycee; the two Italians made contact, with Beretta spinning and causing a tangle of cars.
They all disentwined pretty rapidly and continued, but the safety car had been hastily called.
At the next restart, Gunther was caught out by Dennis's ultra-slow field-controlling pace at the final chicane, hitting the race leader and damaging his front wing.
Leclerc went for the inside at the Gare corner, and took second place as Gunther slid wide. Then Giovinazzi went side by side with Gunther, finally spearing inside at Lycee.
Gunther understeered into the barrier as the Italian went past, and an enormous traffic jam was caused, with some cars mounting the rear of others, prompting the red flag.
With Leclerc's tyres adversely affected by his lengthy time behind Gunther, all Dennis had to do was keep his cool over the final sprint to the flag.
"I didn't even know Gunther had hit me until my engineer told me over the radio," said Dennis.
"He said, 'Have you got any issues with the car?' I said, 'No, why?'. And he said, 'Well, someone hit you'.
"At the end I did one or two push laps, then I thought, 'OK, I've got a two-second lead, I'll back off.' The car was exceptional."
Van Amersfoort Racing man Leclerc kept up his title challenge with second, while Carlin-run Jagonya Ayam protege Giovinazzi kept up his 100 per cent podium record in 2015 to retain his championship lead.
With Felix Rosenqvist making a bold pass on Alex Albon for fifth at the final restart, it looked as though Maini's days were numbered in fourth place, but the Indian held firm to take his first F3 points.
On the penultimate lap Albon dropped off the tail of this duo and behind George Russell, who completed a rise from 12th on the grid to finish sixth.
RACE TWO RESULT:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jake Dennis | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 49m15.706s |
2 | Charles Leclerc | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 0.662s |
3 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 2.736s |
4 | Arjun Maini | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 5.468s |
5 | Felix Rosenqvist | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 5.979s |
6 | George Russell | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 9.711s |
7 | Alexander Albon | Signature | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 11.023s |
8 | Markus Pommer | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 11.972s |
9 | Sam MacLeod | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 15.644s |
10 | Lance Stroll | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 15.927s |
11 | Santino Ferrucci | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 17.347s |
12 | Mikkel Jensen | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 17.651s |
13 | Alessio Lorandi | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 18.366s |
14 | Gustavo Menezes | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 19.010s |
15 | Callum Ilott | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 19.342s |
16 | Martin Cao | Fortec Motorsports | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 20.177s |
17 | Nabil Jeffri | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 20.923s |
18 | Maximilian Guenther | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 21.576s |
19 | Tatiana Calderon | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 22.186s |
20 | Sergio Sette Camara | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 22.689s |
21 | Ryan Tveter | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27 | 23.666s |
22 | Raoul Hyman | Team West-Tec F3 | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 25.148s |
23 | Nicolas Pohler | Double R Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 26.643s |
24 | Matt Rao | Fortec Motorsports | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 27.024s |
25 | Gustav Malja | EuroInternational | Dallara/Mercedes | 27 | 32.958s |
26 | Dorian Boccolacci | Signature | Dallara/Volkswagen | 26 | 1 Lap |
- | Michele Beretta | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 25 | Retirement |
- | Brandon Maisano | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 19 | Retirement |
- | Kang Ling | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 19 | Retirement |
- | Fabian Schiller | Team West-Tec F3 | Dallara/Mercedes | 19 | Retirement |
- | Julio Moreno | ThreeBond with T-Sport | Dallara/NBE | 13 | Retirement |
- | Matt Solomon | Double R Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 1 | Retirement |
- | Pietro Fittipaldi | Fortec Motorsports | Dallara/Mercedes | 0 | Withdrawn |
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