Merhi dominates race three

The Spaniard was never challenged once he stole the lead from a slow-starting Marco Wittmann off the line. He gradually opened out the gap back to the German in the early laps, and extended it again in the closing stages after it had stayed around three seconds for much of the race.

Wittmann's poor start from pole nearly cost him second place as well, but he squeezed the second Prema Powerteam car of Daniel Juncadella onto the grass before the first corner.

That allowed Felix Rosenqvist into third, and the Mucke driver briefly grabbed second from Wittmann as well. But he only held the place for a lap, before the Signature driver re-passed him at the Spitzkehre hairpin on lap three.

Rosenqvist closed in the final laps to put pressure on Wittmann again, but the German just held on to his second place.

Juncadella and Nigel Melker ran fourth and fifth throughout the race, while there was more action behind them.

Daniel Abt and Laurens Vanthoor scrapped over sixth place in the early laps. Abt briefly held the position thanks to a move at the hairpin, but when Vanthoor re-passed him into the Mercedes Arena, Jimmy Eriksson also got through.

Eriksson then put a move on Vanthoor at Turn 2 on lap five, but by the end of the backstraight he was behind the Belgian again. He had another lunge two laps later into the hairpin, and this time he ran so wide that he allowed Abt back through as well.

Abt would hold Eriksson off to the finish, and they were both promoted a place when Vanthoor was given a drive-through penalty for going too wide off track at Turn 1.

Merhi's victory means he has now opened up a 19-point advantage over Juncadella in the Euro Series and also leads the new FIA International F3 Trophy by 30 points from his team-mate.

Results - 25 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Roberto Merhi       Prema Dallara-Merc      39m25.238s
 2.  Marco Wittmann      Signature Dallara-VW      + 5.114s
 3.  Felix Rosenqvist    Mucke Dallara-Merc        + 5.611s
 4.  Daniel Juncadella   Prema Dallara-Merc       + 12.658s
 5.  Nigel Melker        Mucke Dallara-Merc       + 15.354s
 6.  Daniel Abt          Signature Dallara-VW     + 16.134s
 7.  Jimmy Eriksson      Motopark Dallara-VW      + 16.882s
 8.  Tom Dillmann        Carlin Dallara-VW        + 20.598s
 9.  Carlos Munoz        Signature Dallara-VW     + 25.769s
10.  Kimiya Sato         Motopark Dallara-VW      + 26.289s
11.  Jazeman Jaafar      Carlin Dallara-VW        + 26.849s
12.  Carlos Huertas      Carlin Dallara-VW        + 31.354s
13.  Sandro Zeller       Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc   + 36.691s
14.  Gianmarco Raimondo  Motopark Dallara-VW      + 46.971s
15.  Laurens Vanthoor    Signature Dallara-VW     + 57.062s

Retirements:

     Kuba Giermaziak     Star Dallara-VW             6 laps