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European F3 Hockenheim: Gunther wins as Eriksson secures second

Mercedes DTM junior Maximilian Gunther took a pole-to-flag win in the final race of the Formula 3 European Championship season at Hockenheim, but it wasn't enough to give him the runner-up spot in the standings

A brilliant performance from Joel Eriksson - a protege of the BMW junior team - gave the Swede second in the race and in the championship after starting fifth on the grid.

Eriksson made up one place at the start when Callum Ilott, second on the grid, lost momentum after what seemed like a decent initial launch, and plummeted to sixth by the time the field reached Turn 2.

Eriksson then made an incisive pass on Jake Hughes for third place into the Spitzkehre hairpin on lap two, the Midlander unable to defend from Eriksson as strongly as he had in Saturday's second race.

One lap later Eriksson passed Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou for second in the Mercedes Arena, and at the end of this lap he was 2.7 seconds behind the Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes of Gunther, who unlike Eriksson had two new tyres left for this race from his weekend allocation.

Gunther inched out a couple of tenths more to his advantage before a full-course yellow was called on lap seven - Ferdinand Habsburg had misjudged his car positioning in a jostling midfield bunch into the Sachskurve, and was launched over the rear wheel of Juri Vips and into the barriers.

Motopark driver Eriksson lost the best part of two seconds to Gunther over the FCY, and the Austro-Bavarian kept the gap around the 4s mark for the majority of the remainder of the race, despite a couple of hefty lock-ups at the Sachskurve.

"All I could do [to be championship runner-up] was win the race," said Gunther.

"I had a really good start, pulled the gap and got quite a good lead.

"From there on I managed my race, and managed my tyres - I'm really happy to win here in the motordrome; for a German driver that's really special."

The fight for third remained interesting throughout, with newly crowned champion Lando Norris passing Hughes after the FCY to move into fourth and latch onto the tail of Zhou.

But Prema driver Zhou held firm, despite another last-lap attack from the Carlin machine of Norris, to take third.

Hitech GP ace Hughes outbraked himself at Spitzkehre mid-race while defending from the Prema car of Ilott - who had lost ground under the FCY - allowing Ilott to take fifth.

Nikita Mazepin (Hitech) passed Van Amersfoort Racing's Pedro Piquet as the FCY ended, but was instructed by stewards to give the position back, so Piquet finished his season with a seventh place, while his VAR team-mate Joey Mawson was also close to hand behind Mazepin in ninth.

But a post-race five-second penalty for an FCY infringement relagated Hughes to eighth, behind Piquet and Mazepin.

The season's final point went the way of Motopark's David Beckmann after he passed Tadasuke Makino on the fifth lap.

Race three result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Maximilian Guenther Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 22 35m31.488s
2 Joel Eriksson Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 22 3.585s
3 Guanyu Zhou Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 22 14.264s
4 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 22 14.780s
5 Callum Ilott Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 22 16.085s
6 Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 22 23.872s
7 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 22 24.718s
8 Jake Hughes Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 22 24.918s
9 Joey Mawson Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 22 25.559s
10 David Beckmann Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 22 27.603s
11 Tadasuke Makino Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 22 28.848s
12 Juri Vips Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 22 33.283s
13 Keyvan Andres Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 22 37.314s
14 Devlin Defrancesco Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 22 38.017s
15 Felipe Drugovich Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 22 40.005s
16 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 22 45.525s
17 Harrison Newey Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 22 50.708s
18 Mick Schumacher Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 22 1m02.738s
19 Ralf Aron Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 22 1m30.006s
20 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 21 1 Lap
- Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 5 Retirement

Final drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Lando Norris 441
2 Joel Eriksson 388
3 Maximilian Guenther 383
4 Callum Ilott 344
5 Jake Hughes 207
6 Jehan Daruvala 191
7 Ferdinand Habsburg 186
8 Guanyu Zhou 149
9 Ralf Aron 123
10 Nikita Mazepin 108
11 Harrison Newey 106
12 Mick Schumacher 94
13 Joey Mawson 83
14 Pedro Piquet 80
15 Tadasuke Makino 57
16 David Beckmann 45
17 Jake Dennis 41
18 Max Defourny 2
19 Marino Sato 1
20 Sacha Fenestraz 1


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