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Monza European F3: Eriksson beats Norris for race two victory

Joel Eriksson held off Lando Norris for a start-to-finish win in the second race of the Formula 3 European Championship round at Monza

BMW junior Eriksson made the most of his pole position to assert his Motopark Dallara-Volkswagen's position at the front of the field, while Norris once again lost ground from a front-row starting spot and dropped initially to fourth.

With Callum Ilott boxed in at the Rettifilo chicane, Norris was able to immediately repass his fellow Briton for third, and then hunted down Mick Schumacher.

Norris gave Schumacher a tiny tap at Rettifilo on the sixth lap, and the Carlin driver was able to pass the Prema Powerteam machine of Schumacher later in the lap at Lesmo.

By this time Eriksson was 3.270 seconds to the good, and Norris's inroads appeared too small for the McLaren protege to have a chance of catching the Swede.

But the gains became bigger in the last quarter of the race, and Norris - the only one of the top eight starters not to use two new tyres in this race - set the fastest lap to date with two laps remaining to get the gap down to a second.

Eriksson was able to hold on, and crossed the line 0.735s in front to retake a clear championship lead, having entered the race level on points with Norris.

That was despite a scare when he ran over some debris from David Beckmann's car on the third lap at Lesmo, while a mirror fell off later on.

"At first I was a little bit scared [about the debris]," said Eriksson, "but I was quite lucky.

"The race itself was really good - the start was perfect, one of the best in the field I think, and then I managed to pull away a gap.

"I got a pace and tried to drive as comfortably as possible.

"In the end Lando was catching me and got a slipstream - that made it a bit difficult for me and I just had to speed it up.

Schumacher was a lonely third, while Prema team-mate Maximilian Gunther won the best dust-up of the race for fourth.

Harrison Newey was flying from 11th on the grid and challenged Gunther for fourth, but lost ground and came under attack from Jake Dennis.

A collision at the Rettifilo damaged Newey's front wing and gave Dennis a puncture, both of them retiring.

That allowed Ferdinand Habsburg through to fifth and the Austrian soon caught Gunther, but a trip down the Rettifilo escape road after they ran side by side into the chicane with three laps remaining proved the end of Habsburg's challenge, and he finished fifth.

Also in this group were Prema duo Guan Yu Zhou and Ilott, along with Carlin's first-race poleman Jehan Daruvala, the trio finishing in this order.

Hitech GP men Ralf Aron and Nikita Mazepin took the last two points-scoring positions.

RESULTS - 20 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Joel Eriksson Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 34m53.980s
2 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 0.735s
3 Mick Schumacher Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 9.037s
4 Maximilian Guenther Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 13.533s
5 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 14.829s
6 Guanyu Zhou Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 15.347s
7 Callum Ilott Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 15.930s
8 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 18.991s
9 Ralf Aron Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 22.615s
10 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 23.826s
11 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 27.555s
12 Keyvan Andres Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 30.542s
13 Jake Hughes Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 30.703s
14 Tadasuke Makino Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 31.641s
15 David Beckmann Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.114s
16 Joey Mawson Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.735s
- Harrison Newey Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes Retirement
- Jake Dennis Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen Retirement
- Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes Retirement


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