Bianchi continues winning streak
Jules Bianchi took his fifth consecutive Saturday race victory in the F3 Euro Series with another dominant performance at the Nurburgring, as ART took a 1-2-3 finish
The championship leader fended off the attentions of fast-starting team-mate Valtteri Bottas into the first corner, and after that he set about opening up a huge lead.
While Bottas concentrated on the queue of cars that formed behind him in the early stages, Bianchi raced away into the distance, and went on to win by more than 13 seconds.
Despite struggling to break away from the chasing pack early on, Bottas eventually earned himself some breathing space ahead of the third ART car of Esteban Gutierrez, who he had jumped ahead of at the start.
The Mexican dropped back from his team-mate as he came under pressure from Sam Bird, although by the end of the race he had closed back up.
Bird had very few opportunities to make a move for the final podium spot, as Gutierrez's only error came at the exit of the final chicane, which didn't offer much of a chance to the British driver.
Despite their scrap, the third and fourth placed drivers were able to break away from the rest of the field, which was headed by Mika Maki in fifth place.
The Finn led home Signature team-mate Jean Karl Vernay, while behind them Alexander Sims fended off early pressure from his Mucke team-mate Christian Vietoris to take seventh.
Vietoris had made a poor start from eighth on the grid, but a daring move around the outside of several cars at Turn 3 on the opening lap got him back into the points. He then attacked Sims a couple of times, before falling back into the clutches of Stefano Coletti in the closing stages.
Pos Driver Team Car Time/Gap 1. Jules Bianchi ART D/M 31m01.013s 2. Valtteri Bottas ART D/M +13.722s 3. Esteban Gutierrez ART D/M +14.693s 4. Sam Bird Mucke D/M +15.638s 5. Mika Maki Signature D/V +19.456s 6. Jean-Karl Vernay Signature D/V +20.138s 7. Alexander Sims Mucke D/M +20.422s 8. Christian Vietoris Mucke D/M +21.756s 9. Stefano Coletti Prema D/M +22.475s 10. Henkie Waldschmidt SG D/M +26.781s 11. Atte Mustonen Motopark D/M +29.577s 12. Cesar Ramos Manor D/M +30.995s 13. Marco Wittmann Mucke D/M +35.383s 14. Tiago Geronimi Signature D/V +46.674s 15. Christopeher Zanella Motopark D/M +46.958s 16. Jake Rosenzweig Carlin D/V +50.199s 17. Johnny Cecotto Jr HBR D/M +53.498s 18. Roberto Merhi Manor D/M +53.694s 19. Nick Tandy Kolles D/V +56.761s 20. Johan Jokinen Kolles D/V +57.627s 21. Basil Shaaban Prema D/M +1m00.280s 22. Tom Dillmann HBR D/M +1m02.031s 23. Brendon Hartley Carlin D/V +1m02.938s 24. Pedro Enrique Manor D/M +1m19.035s 25. Andrea Caldarelli SG D/M +1 lap
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