Hockenheim European F3: Rosenqvist dominates race three

The Swede made a sensation getaway from fourth on the grid to lead into the first corner in his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes, and was only briefly headed.

Rosenqvist's initial lead was eroded by an early safety-car period that allowed both Carlin's Jordan King and Fortec's Felix Serralles to close in.

F3 rookie King, who started on the front row, grabbed the lead at the Mercedes Arena on lap 10, but ran wide at the exit of the corner and fell back to second.

That then became third when Serralles also passed him, but only after the Puerto Rican and the Briton had impressively run side-by-side - without contact - for four corners.

While Rosenqvist took his second win of the year and Serralles added to the second place he'd taken in race one, King began to fall back.

His polesitting team-mate Daniil Kvyat robbed him of third on the run out of the Spitz Kehre on lap 11 and Raffaele Marciello then took fourth at the same corner a handful of laps later when King ran wide after putting two wheels on the outside kerb under braking.

King stayed on the Prema Powerteam car's tail and even repassed Marciello at the hairpin a few laps later. But Marciello's better exit from the corner had him back in front by the Mercedes Arena.

Marciello's result retained the Ferrari protege's championship lead, albeit at a reduced 71.5 points from Rosenqvist.

Alex Lynn survived a late tap up the rear from Sven Muller to take sixth with Tom Blomqvist, Eddie Cheever and Pipo Derani completing the top 10.

Both were just ahead of a terrific five-car battle that featured Lucas Auer - who pitted for a new nose after hitting King on the first lap - and Josh Hill, who stalled at the start.

Harry Tincknell and Will Buller would likely have finished in the same group, but for the former spinning the T-Sport driver around at the hairpin just after being passed by him.

Buller finished 17th while Tincknell finished a lap down after being given a drive-through penalty for causing the incident and stopping to have front-end damage to his Carlin car checked.

The biggest incident of the race was a safety car-inducing accident on lap three that eliminated Andre Rudersdorf, Roy Nissany, Sean Gelael and Spike Goddard.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos Driver              Team/Car                       Time/Gap
 1. Felix Rosenqvist    Mucke Dallara-Merc             35m48.454s
 2. Felix Serralles     Prema Dallara-Merc              + 4.841s
 3. Daniil Kvyat        Carlin Dallara-VW               + 5.340s
 4. Raffaele Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc              + 6.580s
 5. Jordan King         Carlin Dallara-VW               + 7.178s
 6. Alex Lynn           Prema Dallara-Merc              + 7.768s
 7. Sven Muller         Ma-con Dallara-VW               + 8.930s
 8. Tom Blomqvist       EuroInternational Dallara-VW    + 16.563s
 9. Eddie Cheever       Prema Dallara-Merc              + 17.586s
10. Pipo Derani         Fortec Dallara-Merc             + 18.613s
11. Lucas Wolf          URD Dallara-Merc                + 19.071s
12. Lucas Auer          Prema Dallara-Merc              + 19.621s
13. Josh Hill           Fortec Dallara-Merc             + 19.880s
14. Dennis van de Laar  Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       + 21.942s
15. Nicholas Latifi     Carlin Dallara-VW               + 22.527s
16. Michael Lewis       Prema Dallara-Merc              + 24.355s
17. Will Buller         T-Sport Dallara-Nissan          + 25.289s
18. Mitchell Gilbert    Mucke Dallara-Merc              + 26.208s
19. Mans Grenhagen      Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       + 32.856s
20. Ed Jones            Fortec Dallara-Merc             + 35.853s
21. Sandro Zeller       Zeller Dallara-Merc             + 36.712s
22. Jann Mardenborough  Carlin Dallara-VW               + 37.679s
23. Tatiana Calderon    Double R Dallara-Merc           + 38.472s
24. Antonio Giovinazzi  Double R Dallara-Merc           + 1m17.976s
25. Harry Tincknell     Carlin Dallara-VW               + 1 lap

Retirements:

    Andre Rudersdorf    Ma-con Dallara-VW               2 laps
    Roy Nissany         Mucke Dallara-Merc              2 laps
    Spike Goddard       T-Sport Dallara-Nissan          2 laps
    Sean Gelael         Double R Dallara-Merc           2 laps