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
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments