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European F3 Hockenheim: Shwartzman controls series' last-ever race

Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman crushed the opposition in the last-ever Formula 3 European Championship race at Hockenheim

While Shwartzman took victory by an incredible 10.5 seconds, Prema Powerteam stablemate and new champion Mick Schumacher had an edgy race to second.

Schumacher lost significant chunks of time on at least two occasions, each time allowing the squabbling Alex Palou and Ralf Aron onto his tail.

"I did the same mistake again [as race two] in Turn 1 - it feels a bit embarrassing to be honest!" said Schumacher.

Shwartzman added: "I kept my fresh set of tyres for this race because I was starting from pole, so I had an advantage over Mick.

"Mick was quite close in Turn 1 at the start, but I just kept it flat, then I started to pick up quite a good pace and pulled away.

"I could see the guys fighting behind, and the car felt good all race and I didn't have much degradation at all - I was just enjoying the ride."

Aron had wrested fourth spot from Palou at Turn 2 on the opening lap, but Palou tried to redress the balance down the long straight into the Spitzkehre hairpin.

Aron was caught on the inside line and tipped fellow Estonian Juri Vips into a spin, Sacha Fenestraz in turn riding over the rear of Aron's car and retiring as a consequence of the damage.

Palou's Hitech GP car moved up to third, while Aron, apparently showing no ill-effect, continued in fourth in his Prema machine.

Aron bided his time and mounted several attacks on Palou over the closing laps, but could not dislodge the Spaniard from the final podium spot.

On the last lap, Aron's bid allowed Motopark's Red Bull Junior Dan Ticktum right onto their tails, but the positions didn't change.

Prema's Guan Yu Zhou moved up to sixth just after half-distance when he passed Motopark driver Jonathan Aberdein for sixth at Spitzkehre.

With Fenestraz sidelined, and Jehan Daruvala losing fifth place when he slid wide at the final corner on lap five and into the gravel, causing terminal damage to his car, Carlin honour was upheld by Ferdinand Habsburg.

Habsburg passed Aberdein for seventh, and had latched onto the train behind third-placed Palou by the finish.

Enaam Ahmed was ninth in his Hitech car, and might have come under attack from the astonishing Vips.

The Motopark talent was 22nd at the end of the opening lap after his removal from contention in his incident with Aron - not the first or even second time this season that the compatriots have clashed.

But Vips stormed through the field, and dislodged Sophia Florsch from the final position in the points.

Then he slowed exiting Turn 1, and had to repass Florsch with a dramatic move at Mercedes Arena, but this left him out of time to catch Ahmed or Aberdein.

Vips's incident also left Ticktum safe in second in the standings, and allowed Shwartzman to gazump him for third.

Result - 22 laps

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Robert Shwartzman PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 34m34.214s
2 Mick Schumacher PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 10.511s
3 Alex Palou Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 11.585s
4 Dan Ticktum Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 12.726s
5 Guanyu Zhou PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 13.181s
6 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 13.552s
7 Jonathan Aberdein Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 14.834s
8 Enaam Ahmed Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 16.731s
9 Juri Vips Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 17.950s
10 Artem Petrov Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 21.762s
11 Fabio Scherer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 27.044s
12 Sebastian Fernandez Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 27.412s
13 Julian Hanses Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 27.741s
14 Frederik Vesti Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 28.280s
15 Ralf Aron PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 32.016s
16 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 32.236s
17 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 33.151s
18 Sophia Florsch Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 40.754s
19 Ben Hingeley Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 48.698s
20 Keyvan Andres Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 49.745s
21 Nikita Troitskiy Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m10.951s
- Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen Retirement
- Marcus Armstrong PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes Retirement
- Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen Retirement

Final drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Mick Schumacher 365
2 Dan Ticktum 308
3 Robert Shwartzman 294
4 Juri Vips 284
5 Marcus Armstrong 260
6 Ralf Aron 242.5
7 Alex Palou 204
8 Guanyu Zhou 203
9 Enaam Ahmed 174
10 Jehan Daruvala 136.5
11 Sacha Fenestraz 121
12 Jonathan Aberdein 108
13 Ferdinand Habsburg 87
14 Fabio Scherer 64
15 Nikita Troitskiy 37
16 Marino Sato 31.5
17 Ben Hingeley 22
18 Keyvan Andres 18
19 Julian Hanses 7
20 Artem Petrov 7
21 Sebastian Fernandez 5
22 Sophia Florsch 1


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