Hockenheim European F3: Raffaele Marciello finishes season with victory
Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello capped off his title-winning Formula 3 European Championship season with a commanding victory in a very wet final race of 2013 at Hockenheim
With heavy rain falling throughout the morning, the race started behind the safety car, and two laps had been completed before racing was allowed to begin.
Prema Powerteam driver Marciello came under pressure on more than one occasion from title rival Felix Rosenqvist throughout the race, but every time the Mucke Motorsport driver closed onto his tail, he dropped back due to poor visibility. Marciello's victory margin was just two tenths of a second from the Swede.
Harry Tincknell ran a lonely third for most of the race, but the Carlin driver slipped back two spots after running wide and through the gravel at the entrance to the stadium section. Prema's Lucas Auer, who had been pressuring Tincknell for the spot at the time of the Briton's gravelly excursion, took the final podium spot.
EuroInternational's Tom Blomqvist started eighth, but put together a series of neat passing moves on, respectively, Nick Cassidy and Antonio Giovinazzi, to gain two spots. He then benefited from Tincknell's off and a 10-second time loss from Jordan King in the final sector during the middle of the race to wind up fourth.
Cassidy, who started sixth, gradually fell backwards to end up 16th in his Carlin machine while Van Amersfoort's Sven Muller and Prema's Alex Lynn went the other way.
Muller finished seventh - one spot behind Double R's impressive Giovinazzi - having started 12th.
Lynn, who began the race 20th after damaging his floor in qualifying, took eighth.
Pipo Derani broke his left-front suspension after spinning Eddie Cheever at the Spitzkehre while the pair squabbled over 10th while tail-end runner Tatiana Calderon T-boned Spike Goddard at the same corner later on.
Results - 16 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Raffaele Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 35m29.932s 2. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc +0.243s 3. Lucas Auer Prema Dallara-Merc +9.363s 4. Tom Blomqvist Eurointernational Dallara-Merc +15.954s 5. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW +26.697s 6. Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Dallara-Merc +27.867s 7. Sven Müller Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW +32.112s 8. Alex Lynn Prema Dallara-Merc +36.122s 9. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW +40.293s 10. Michael Lewis Mucke Dallara-Merc +42.256s 11. Jann Mardenborough Carlin Dallara-VW +43.193s 12. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW +50.982s 13. Sean Gelael Double R Dallara-Merc +51.864s 14. Kevin Korjus T-Sport Dallara-Nissan +52.618s 15. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc +56.846s 16. Nick Cassidy Carlin Dallara-VW +58.037s 17. Eddie Cheever Prema Dallara-Merc +59.144s 18. Sandro Zeller Zeller Dallara-Merc +1m24.171s 19. Andre Rudersdorf Ma-con Dallara-VW +1m29.798s 20. Richard Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Nissan -1 lap Retirements: Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Merc 13 laps Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 10 laps Tatiana Calderon Double R Dallara-Merc 8 laps Nicholas Latifi Carlin Dallara-VW 7 laps John Bryant-Meisner Fortec Dallara-Merc 7 laps Luis Felipe Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 5 laps Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc 3 laps
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