Merhi victorious in Ricard race two
Roberto Merhi made up for his earlier disappointment by winning the second Formula 3 Euro Series race of the weekend at Paul Ricard
The Prema driver moved up from his fifth place on the reversed grid immediately and lay third by the end of the opening lap, right behind Signature's Marco Wittmann, who had started one place ahead of him.
Within a few laps, both Wittmann and Merhi had drafted past polesitter Laurens Vanthoor (Signature), and set about disputing the lead between themselves.
The critical moment came on lap four when Merhi used the power of his Mercedes engine - and a slipstream - to seize the lead from Wittmann's Volkswagen-engined car. After that the Spaniard moved just out of reach of the German and went on to take victory by 0.8 seconds.
During the latter stages of the race Daniel Juncadella - who had spent lap after lap trying to get by Carlos Munoz's Signature car - closed in on Wittmann, but was unable to make a challenge as he was suffering from a gearbox glitch.
Race one winner Nigel Melker came through to fourth by the finish, but was given a post-race 30s penalty for unsporting behaviour on the track that dropped him to 12th in the results.
His Mucke team-mate Felix Rosenqvist therefore inherited fourth place, ahead of Vanthoor, but the Belgian was penalised 5s himself for his on-track behaviour, which dropped him to seventh behind Munoz and Kimiya Sato in the best of the Motopark cars.
Results - 10 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Roberto Merhi Prema Dallara-Merc 19m10.637s 2. Marco Wittmann Signature Dallara-VW + 0.800s 3. Daniel Juncadella Prema Dallara-Merc + 1.360s 4. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc + 7.056s 5. Carlos Munoz Signature Dallara-VW + 10.152s 6. Kimiya Sato Motopark Dallara-VW + 10.394s 7. Laurens Vanthoor Signature Dallara-VW + 11.856s 8. Kuba Giermaziak Star Dallara-VW + 12.607s 9. Jimmy Eriksson Motopark Dallara-VW + 13.492s 10. Gianmarco Raimondo Motopark Dallara-VW + 16.438s 11. Daniel Abt Signature Dallara-VW + 16.940s 12. Nigel Melker Mucke Dallara-Merc + 34.948s
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