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Lando Norris takes second win to extend his championship lead

Formula 3 European Championship leader Lando Norris kept Jake Hughes at bay to win a tense final race of the weekend at the Nurburgring

The victory means that McLaren-Honda protege Norris now holds a 73-point advantage over nearest rival Maximilian Gunther with 150 still on the table, Gunther at least mitigating the disaster of Saturday qualifying by finishing a fighting seventh in race three.

Poleman Callum Ilott got the lead at the start from Norris, but the safety car was soon called out.

Ferdinand Habsburg, who was sixth as they sprinted away from the line, locked up and tapped Guan Yu Zhou into a spin at Turn 1, Habsburg careering into the gravel with broken suspension and Zhou stuck in an otherwise undamaged car.

Ferrari junior Zhou even stayed aboard his car as it was winched away.

Ilott made a good restart but the Prema Powerteam ace had no answer to Norris, who looked around the outside of Turns 1 and 2 before slipping down the inside at Turn 3.

Norris then had to run wide at Turn 4 to keep Ilott, who had stuck his nose back up the inside, at bay.

Hughes in third immediately moved in to attack Ilott, and pulled off a great move around the outside of Turn 1, with Hitech GP team-mate Ralf Aron also slipping past Ilott at Turn 4.

By the end of the lap Hughes had a 0.826-second deficit to Norris, but the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen inched away so that he was more than 1.5s to the good with a third of the race to go.

Hughes took a little bit out of the gap over the next few laps, before bringing it down to within a second with two laps remaining - this coincided with yellow flags at Turn 1, with Joey Mawson's front wing laying on the track after he'd crunched into David Beckmann in a late dive.

Norris finally crossed the line 0.794s to the good over Hughes, the duo monopolising first and second places all weekend.

"Jake was pressuring me quite a bit and I wasn't totally comfortable," admitted Norris.

Behind Aron and Ilott in third and fourth respectively, Jehan Daruvala was close at hand in his Carlin machine to take fifth.

Some way adrift of the leading quintet, Van Amersfoort Racing's Harrison Newey did a terrific job to fend off Gunther and Joel Eriksson for sixth.

Both Gunther and Eriksson made up several places at the start during the first-lap mayhem, and Gunther fought off Eriksson's Motopark car in a juicy encounter through the Mercedes Arena with four laps to go.

Max Defourny (VAR) completed an impressive debut weekend in F3 by claiming points for ninth from Hitech's Nikita Mazepin.

Mazepin was on the back of the Newey-Gunther-Eriksson train until he went off at Turn 7, Defourny having to take to the grass to pass him.

Tadasuke Makino ran a strong early fourth but had to pit for repairs sustained in the early battling.

Race three result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 25 35m44.949s
2 Jake Hughes Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 25 0.794s
3 Ralf Aron Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 25 2.197s
4 Callum Ilott Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 25 5.225s
5 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 25 8.658s
6 Harrison Newey Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 25 19.698s
7 Maximilian Guenther Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 25 20.361s
8 Joel Eriksson Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 25 20.851s
9 Max Defourny Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 25 24.961s
10 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 25 28.384s
11 Mick Schumacher Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 25 38.289s
12 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 25 38.842s
13 Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 25 40.555s
14 Keyvan Andres Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 25 41.713s
15 David Beckmann Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 25 44.823s
16 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 25 46.123s
17 Petru Florescu Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 25 48.471s
18 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 25 49.209s
19 Tadasuke Makino Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 25 1m02.943s
20 Joey Mawson Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 22 3 Laps
- Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 0 Retirement
- Guanyu Zhou Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0 Retirement


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