German F4 champion Vips gets late deal for Euro F3 Hockenheim finale

The 17-year-old Estonian will race a Motopark Dallara-Volkswagen at the same venue where he wrapped up the F4 title in September.

The last-minute deal has come about because one of Motopark's seats has become vacant after Petru Florescu, who has contested the past two Euro F3 rounds after moving up from Euroformula Open, stood down due to what have been described as medical reasons.

While Vips will have no experience of the Motopark car before he takes to the track for Friday's free practice, he did test an F3 car for two days during the summer with Prema Powerteam, the squad with which he has won the F4 crown.

Vips's mentor Marko Asmer, the 2007 British F3 champion who also oversees the career of Hitech GP racer Ralf Aron, told Autosport: "The deal came up with Motopark to do a race and Juri is up for anything - he doesn't care!

"Juri is super-excited to go and race in F3, and he loved the car when he tested at Magny-Cours.

"He's a racer, and this will be a good experience for him."

Vips will join season-long F4 title rival Felipe Drugovich on the F3 grid at Hockenheim, the Brazilian making his F3 debut with Van Amersfoort Racing.