Juncadella leads Prema one-two
Daniel Juncadella won the second F3 Euro Series race of the weekend at Hockenheim, while his team-mate Roberto Merhi starred to complete a Prema Powerteam 1-2
Juncadella inherited second before the race had even begun when front row starter Nigel Melker (Mucke) stalled before the warm-up lap. The start was delayed as Melker ignored instructions to start from the back and still took up his original gridslot, but he was sent to the back at the end of a second warm-up lap.
Polesitter Carlos Munoz led the early laps of the race, but he was under serious pressure from Juncadella. The race leader went very wide at Turn 1 on lap five, and Juncadella was then able to pounce on him with a late move into the Spitzkehre hairpin to snatch the lead.
One lap later Munoz was being passed by the second Prema car of Merhi. The race one winner had started eighth thanks to the reversed grid rules, but he scythed his way through the pack in the early laps.
Merhi was up to fifth by the end of lap one, and he picked off Laurens Vanthoor and Felix Rosenqvist with identical passes into the hairpin on laps three and four to move up to third.
His move on Munoz was not quite as clear-cut, as the Signature driver pulled back alongside on the run to the Mercedes Arena. But Merhi held on around the outside of the fast right hander heading into the arena, giving him the line for the tight left that followed.
After that Merhi was unable to make any progress into Juncadella's lead. The only scare for the race leader from that point was when a rain shower hit the far end of the circuit with two laps to go.
Surprisingly there was little drama at the hairpin as the field dealt well with the tricky conditions. But fourth placed Rosenqvist was overly cautious on the final lap, which allowed 2010 runner-up Marco Wittmann to sneak by.
The only other change at the end came for the final point, as Jimmy Eriksson stole eighth place from Jazeman Jaafar.
Results - 12 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Daniel Juncadella Prema Dallara-Merc 19m13.691s 2. Roberto Merhi Prema Dallara-Merc + 2.705s 3. Carlos Munoz Signature Dallara-VW + 4.350s 4. Marco Wittmann Signature Dallara-VW + 4.716s 5. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc + 5.131s 6. Laurens Vanthoor Signature Dallara-VW + 5.829s 7. Daniel Abt Signature Dallara-VW + 8.320s 8. Jimmy Eriksson Motopark Dallara-VW + 11.563s 9. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 12.451s 10. Tom Dillmann Carlin Dallara-VW + 12.696s 11. Nigel Melker Mucke Dallara-Merc + 13.255s 12. Kimiya Sato Motopark Dallara-VW + 13.988s 13. Gianmarco Raimondo Motopark Dallara-VW + 22.349s 14. Kuba Giermaziak Star Dallara-VW + 22.936s 15. Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc + 23.676s Retirements: Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW 4 laps
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