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European F3 Zandvoort: Antonio Giovinazzi wins in opening race

Antonio Giovinazzi held off Felix Rosenqvist in a tense chase throughout the first Formula 3 European Championship race of the weekend at Zandvoort to take victory

Giovinazzi made a decent start from pole, and the Italian Jagonya Ayam protege moved his Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen across to defend his line into the first corner from Rosenqvist.

Rosenqvist rarely relented in his chase, the Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes frequently less than half a second behind Giovinazzi, but with around four laps to go the leader begin to pull away again, and by the end of the race he had eked out just over a second on the Swede, whose tyres were fading badly from his close pursuit.

"When I saw I was P1 after the first corner I just managed the gap," said Giovinazzi. "This track is very aggressive on tyres so from mid-race I was concentrating on managing them, and I know it's quite difficult to overtake here unless the guy in front makes a mistake."

Markus Pommer stayed third throughout the race, the Motopark Dallara-VW driver, winner of last year's German F3 title, thereby taking his first European F3 podium.

A fast-starting Lance Stroll, from sixth on the grid in his Prema car, and Van Amersfoort Racing's championship leader Charles Leclerc stayed pretty close to Pommer in the early going until the German pulled away.

Jake Dennis dropped from fourth on the grid to sixth, and his mid-season gloom was compounded when he was given a drive-through penalty for jumping the start - he rejoined but pitted with a few laps remaining.

Dennis's drive-through moved a chase between Carlin driver George Russell and Signature man Alexander Albon up a place, the two rarely far apart in sixth and seventh respectively, and both looming larger in Leclerc's mirrors by the end of the race.

Santino Ferrucci was in the mix with these two at the beginning of the race, but a gravelly moment sent him pitwards for attention to the car, elevating Mucke Motorsport team-mate Mikkel Jensen to eighth.

Nabil Jeffri's sixth-fastest qualifying performance was converted to 11th due to a five-place grid penalty for a Norisring collision, but Motopark's Malaysian moved up in the race to claim his first Euro F3 points for ninth.

Another Mucke driver, Maximilian Gunther, was running in the top 10 when he was given a black-and-orange flag for a wobbly nose and pitted, so Prema-run Brandon Maisano claimed the final point.

Midfield attention was focused on Sam MacLeod, who zapped Dorian Boccolacci, Raoul Hyman and finally Arjun Maini as he rose to 12th - from 21st on the grid - behind Callum Ilott.

RESULT - 23 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Antonio Giovinazzi Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 35m28.958s
2 Felix Rosenqvist Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1.127s
3 Markus Pommer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 8.484s
4 Lance Stroll Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 11.065s
5 Charles Leclerc Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 12.156s
6 George Russell Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 13.591s
7 Alexander Albon Signature Dallara/Volkswagen 14.059s
8 Mikkel Jensen KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 20.226s
9 Nabil Jeffri Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 21.052s
10 Brandon Maisano Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 22.158s
11 Callum Ilott Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 28.594s
12 Sam MacLeod Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 30.767s
13 Arjun Maini Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 31.573s
14 Raoul Hyman Team West-Tec F3 Dallara/Mercedes 32.043s
15 Dorian Boccolacci Signature Dallara/Volkswagen 36.522s
16 Gustavo Menezes Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 37.850s
17 Pietro Fittipaldi Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 39.578s
18 Michele Beretta KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 44.629s
19 Tatiana Calderon Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 45.351s
20 Andy Chang Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 49.126s
21 Matt Solomon Double R Racing Dallara/Mercedes 53.524s
22 Matt Rao Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 55.998s
23 Kang Ling KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 57.793s
24 Nicolas Pohler Double R Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m03.341s
25 Fabian Schiller Team West-Tec F3 Dallara/Mercedes 1m04.834s
26 Zhi Cong Li Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 1m10.588s
27 Mahaveer Raghunathan Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m12.159s
28 Santino Ferrucci KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1m22.515s
29 Maximilian Guenther KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1m33.991s
30 Alessio Lorandi Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 1 Lap
31 Julio Moreno ThreeBond with T-Sport Dallara/NBE 1 Lap
- Ryan Tveter Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen Retirement
- Jake Dennis Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes Retirement
- Sergio Sette Camara Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen Retirement


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