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Merhi takes maiden F3 Euro win

Spain's Roberto Merhi won the fourth round of the Formula 3 Euro Series at Hockenheim in Germany on Sunday, passing early leader Antonio Felix da Costa and holding off a late surge from Daniel Juncadella

Juncadella (Prema) made a decent start from pole, but not good enough to hold off da Costa (Motopark) into Turn 1. Merhi (Mucke) further demoted Juncadella at the Spitzkehre hairpin on the opening lap, leaving the poleman Valterri Bottas (ART) on his tail.

Signature duo Edoardo Mortara and Saturday race winner Marco Wittmann quickly moved up to fifth and sixth, both disposing of a fast-starting Matias Laine (Motopark).

Merhi passed da Costa for the lead approaching the Mercedes Arena on lap three, and immediately pulled out a gap over his pursuers.

Juncadella attacked da Costa at the hairpin on lap six, but ran wide, gifting Bottas his third position. Bottas did not like third place either, spinning it away at the Sud Kurve a few moments later, rejoining back in seventh.

Juncadella caught da Costa again, and despite a strong attempt to get past in the Mercedes Arena, da Costa had already run too wide at Turn 1 for the stewards' liking and he received a drivethrough penalty.

Merhi led by as much as 2.8 seconds before Juncadella chipped into his advantage, bringing it back to 0.4s on lap 19. But that was as close as he got, and although Juncadella filled his mirrors for the final laps, he did not mount an attack on his lead. Merhi won by 0.5s to clinch his first win in the championship.

Mortara fended off Wittmann by six tenths of a second to score his second podium finish of the weekend in third place, with Bottas recovering to fifth. Jim Pla (ART) was sixth, repassing team-mate Alexander Sims whose car developed a technical problem in the latter stages of the race after he had charged from 17th to seventh earlier.

Pla escaped a last-lap collision with Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, who finished seventh, ahead of the hobbled Sims.

Pos  Driver                  Team       Car     Time/Gap
 1.  Roberto Merhi           Mucke      D/M   39m44.989s
 2.  Daniel Juncadella       Prema      D/M     + 0.599s
 3.  Edoardo Mortara         Signature  D/V     + 1.412s
 4.  Marco Wittmann          Signature  D/V     + 2.104s
 5.  Valtteri Bottas         ART        D/M     + 4.246s
 6.  Jim Pla                 ART        D/M    + 21.689s
 7.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs     Motopark   D/V    + 29.361s
 8.  Alexander Sims          ART        D/M    + 29.773s
 9.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Motopark   D/V    + 32.499s
10.  Matias Laine            Motopark   D/V    + 45.991s
11.  Sandro Zeller           Jo Zeller  D/M    + 53.559s
12.  Luis Jorge Sa Silva     Motopark   D/V  + 1m06.260s
13.  Nicolas Marroc          Prema      D/M     + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Jimmy Eriksson          Motopark   D/V  11 laps
     Esteban Gutierrez       ART        D/M  5 laps
     Carlos Munoz            Mucke      D/M  0 laps
     Laurens Vanthoor        Signature  D/V  0 laps

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