Hockenheim European F3: Blomqvist wins to leapfrog Verstappen

The Anglo-Swede made a good start and stretched a small advantage over Lucas Auer before the race was neutralised for a one-lap safety-car period after Michele Beretta's damaged rear wing fell onto the track exiting the Sachskurve.

After the restart, Blomqvist pulled out a 1.1-second margin on the first lap and was untroubled thereafter to take his sixth win in his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, leapfrogging Max Verstappen for second in the championship with one race to go.

"From the outside it might have looked quite straightforward," said Blomqvist, "but track conditions today have been quite tricky after the DTM cars were out on track.

"I made a few little errors, and had one big moment at Turn 1, and from then on it was just safety mode."

Auer, who after a fantastic start swept outside front-row starter Antonio Giovinazzi at Turn 1, looked set for second in his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes. But with six laps remaining he got stuck in third gear under braking for the Spitzkehre hairpin and ran wide, allowing Giovinazzi up to second and champion Esteban Ocon to get close.

With four laps to go it looked like a fight to the finish between the trio, before Giovinazzi pulled away to follow team-mate Blomqvist for a one-two, while Ocon's Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes fell away.

Verstappen leapt to seventh on the opening lap from ninth on the grid, helped when Sean Gelael tapped Antonio Fuoco into a spin at Spitzkehre. He then attacked Felix Rosenqvist but, while swarming around behind the Swede, he was stitched up beautifully by Tatiana Calderon, who passed him on the outside at Mercedes Arena.

Two laps later Verstappen dispatched both Calderon and Rosenqvist to move up to fifth, but he never quite had the pace of the quartet in front of him.

Rosenqvist finished sixth, while Calderon also dropped behind Roy Nissany but held off a brief challenge from Gustavo Menezes to take eighth.

Dennis van de Laar completed the points scorers, moving up when both Gelael and Jordan King were forced into the pits for front-wing changes.

Gelael came in at the end of the first lap as a result of his contact with Fuoco, while King had a brush with Giovinazzi in the early going and had been passed by Ocon and Verstappen by the time he pitted.

That wasn't the end of the incidents - the recovering Fuoco had caught Jake Dennis, who in turn was pursuing Felix Serralles for 11^th, when the Italian tried an ambitious lunge at Mercedes Arena on the penultimate lap. Dennis turned in and Fuoco clattered over the front of the Briton's car as both careered into the gravel trap, bringing out the red flags as the field was on its final lap.

RESULTS - 19 LAPS: