Spa European F3: Williams F1 junior Lance Stroll wins opening race
Formula 3 European Championship leader Lance Stroll took a consummate win in a rain-and-safety-car-marred first race of the weekend at Spa
With conditions torrential, the race began under the safety car and there were fewer than 14 minutes remaining when the field was finally unleashed, with the circuit still extremely treacherous.
Williams F1 protege Stroll built a 3.777 seconds advantage over the sister Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes of Maximilian Gunther on the first racing lap, and then pulled more than a second each time around until, after five laps under green, the race went under caution again.
With Canadian Stroll 8.894s to the good, the cause of the second safety car was a shunt at Les Combes for Weiron Tan, who had just emerged from the pits after serving a drive-through penalty for overtaking under the initial safety car.
It seemed as though there might be time for one more racing lap, but the sight of the 'Verviers Depannage' breakdown truck chugging up the Kemmel straight crushed any such hopes.
Behind Gunther, Ben Barnicoat completed the podium for Hitech Grand Prix.
The Briton had been passed by Prema's Nick Cassidy into the La Source hairpin when the race went green, only to fight back and bravely retake the place at Eau Rouge.
George Russell made it two Hitech cars in the top five, after passing the Van Amersfoort Racing machine of Harrison Newey around the outside of the final part of Les Combes on the second lap of racing.
Mucke Motorsport's David Beckmann was seventh, but not for the first time this year there was a collision with team-mate Mikkel Jensen, who tried to thrust his car into a diminishing gap at La Source and retired as a result of the damage sustained.
Ralf Aron (Prema) was eighth, with Carlin duo Ryan Tveter and Alessio Lorandi completing the points scorers.
RESULTS - 12 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lance Stroll | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m47.746s | - |
2 | Maximilian Guenther | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m48.401s | 0.655s |
3 | Ben Barnicoat | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m49.447s | 1.701s |
4 | Nick Cassidy | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m50.045s | 2.299s |
5 | George Russell | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m51.326s | 3.580s |
6 | Harrison Newey | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m53.238s | 5.492s |
7 | David Beckmann | kfzteile Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m54.898s | 7.152s |
8 | Ralf Aron | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m56.057s | 8.311s |
9 | Ryan Tveter | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 38m56.849s | 9.103s |
10 | Alessio Lorandi | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 38m57.642s | 9.896s |
11 | Niko Kari | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 38m59.050s | 11.304s |
12 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mercedes | 39m02.088s | 14.342s |
13 | Ukyo Sasahara | ThreeBond with T-Sport | Dallara/Threebond | 39m03.988s | 16.242s |
14 | Joel Eriksson | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 39m07.054s | 19.308s |
15 | Sergio Sette Camara | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 39m07.943s | 20.197s |
16 | Callum Ilott | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 39m08.987s | 21.241s |
17 | Guanyu Zhou | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 39m10.027s | 22.281s |
18 | Pedro Piquet | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 39m13.683s | 25.937s |
- | Weiron Tan | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 29m32.175s | Retirement |
- | Mikkel Jensen | kfzteile Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 38m51.925s | Retirement |
- | Anthoine Hubert | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 24m13.801s | Retirement |
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