Maiden Win for Di Grassi
Manor Motorsport's Lucas di Grassi converted his maiden F3 Euroseries pole position into maiden F3 Euroseries win at Oschersleben's first race
The Brazilian dominated the race from pole position, which was restarted behind the safety car after the original race was red-flagged due to torrential rain this morning.
The race was restarted in the order they finished at the end of lap one. Di Grassi's cause was helped by ASM's Adrian Sutil locking up just before the safety car pulled into the pits, which allowed the Brazilian to get away.
"After Sutil braked too late that gave me a gap and felt confident about holding the lead all the way, as long I didn't make a mistake," Di Grassi said.
Lewis Hamilton had to take quick action to avoid teammate Sutil, and when the race restarted the pair were involved in the fight for second. Hamilton nearly got passed at the first corner but his challenge faded away after half distance as he settled for a third and a strong haul of Championship points.
Hamilton said: "It would have taken a stupid move to pass Adrian so I decided not be stupid and take the points for third."
Paul Di Resta was the one of the main losers of the decision not to restart from the original grid positions.
He was dropped to fourth from second after his start this morning and didn't manage to finish higher.
The other losers included Loic Duval and Hannes Naushauser. Duval stalled at the original start and Naushauser collided with him, but because the race was restarted from the positions at the end of the first lap, neither were allowed to restart.
CLASSIFIED: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Lucas di Grassi Manor Motorsport 5h 1:03.925 2. Adrian Sutil ASM F3 + 1.473 3. Lewis Hamilton ASM F3 + 2.262 4. Paul di Resta Manor Motorsport + 4.102 5. Sebastian Vettel ASL Mucke Motorsport + 9.099 6. Franck Perera Prema Powerteam + 12.216 7. Guillaume Moreau Signature + 12.721 8. Atila Abreu ASL Mucke Motorsport + 23.772 9. Fabio Carbone Signature + 26.177 10. Alejandro Nunez HBR Motorsport + 27.243 11. Esteban Guerrieri Team Midland + 29.254 12. Marco Bonanomi Prema Powerteam + 32.374 13. Nico Verdonck Team Midland + 37.595 14. Filip Salaquarda Team I.S.R. + 42.025 15. James Rossiter Signature-Plus + 42.690 16. Thomas Holzer AM-Holzer Rennsport + 47.993 17. Giedo van der Garde Team Rosberg + 48.022 18. Greg Franchi Prema Powerteam + 48.689 NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Driver Team One Lap Kohei Hirate Team Rosberg 8 Loic Duval Signature-Plus 0 Hannes Neuhauser HBR Motorsport 0
About this article
| Series | FIA F3 |
| Author | Tim Redmayne |
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