Norisring European F3: Gunther wins after Norris and Hughes collide
Maximilian Gunther won a thrilling first Formula 3 European Championship race at the Norisring after a late-race collision between Jake Hughes and Lando Norris


Hughes had controlled the race beautifully from pole position, his Hitech GP car leading a queue of eight cars in the early stages while Norris recovered after losing places from his front-row start.
McLaren-Honda protege Norris had dropped to fourth, but he inserted his Carlin machine down the inside of Pedro Piquet for third at the Turn 1 hairpin on the second lap.
Norris then attacked Gunther for second, but the Prema Powerteam driver stabilised his position and was shadowing Hughes when a full course yellow was called on lap 17.
Joey Mawson had been embroiled in a massive fight with Van Amersfoort Racing team-mate Harrison Newey for seventh, but contact with Jehan Daruvala at the chicane sent Australian Mawson smashing into the wall on the outside.
Once the race went green, Norris took a lap before lancing down the inside of Gunther to take second place at the Turn 1 hairpin.
Within a few laps he was attacking Hughes for the lead, probing for openings all around the circuit, which in turn allowed Gunther, Piquet and Guan Yu Zhou to close up.
A challenge from Gunther on Norris in turn allowed Hughes some breathing space, before Norris began to close the gap again.
Six laps from the finish Norris got into Hughes's slipstream and moved to the inside to try for the lead, but that put him onto the dust and he shovelled Hughes into a spin, which ended with a large crump rear-end first into an access-road tyre barrier.
As Gunther and Piquet slipped past, Norris rejoined in third, just in front of Zhou, but there was another brief FCY while the wreckage was cleared.
That left five laps of green-flag racing in which Gunther was largely untroubled, as Norris threw everything into passing the VAR car of Piquet.
He succeeded with a lap to go when he slipstreamed past on the start-finish straight, but his second place on the road was converted to 11th with the addition of 20 seconds - in lieu of a drive-through penalty called on the last lap - for the clash with Hughes.

That promoted Piquet and Prema driver Zhou to second and third, while pre-race championship leader Joel Eriksson stormed through to take fourth in his Motopark car after starting on the back row.
The Swede was the big loser in the first FCY, otherwise he could well have challenged for a podium, and lost his points advantage to Gunther.
Newey held off Daruvala, Mick Schumacher, Tadasuke Makino, Ralf Aron and Nikita Mazepin, who claimed the final points positions.
For the other title contender, Callum Ilott, it was a disastrous race.
He was tipped into a spin at the start by Ferdinand Habsburg, who had tripped over the slow-starting Norris, and this left Ilott leading a much-delayed group of five cars at the back.
Ilott gradually caught up the midfielders, only to spin Keyvan Andres Soori around at Turn 1 before retiring to the pits with damage to his front end.
RACE ONE RESULT - 38 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Maximilian Guenther | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 33m54.166s |
2 | Pedro Piquet | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 1.507s |
3 | Guanyu Zhou | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 2.134s |
4 | Joel Eriksson | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 4.421s |
5 | Harrison Newey | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 15.640s |
6 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 15.717s |
7 | Mick Schumacher | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 16.480s |
8 | Tadasuke Makino | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mercedes | 17.907s |
9 | Ralf Aron | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mercedes | 18.508s |
10 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mercedes | 19.426s |
11 | Lando Norris | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 20.832s |
12 | David Beckmann | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 24.109s |
13 | Marino Sato | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27.342s |
14 | Keyvan Andres | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 27.766s |
- | Jake Hughes | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mercedes | Retirement |
- | Callum Ilott | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | Retirement |
- | Joey Mawson | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | Retirement |
- | Ferdinand Habsburg | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | Retirement |

Norisring European F3: Hughes gets first pole ahead of Norris
Norris didn't cause Norisring European F3 crash on purpose - Hughes

Latest news
Verstappen buoyed by new handling characteristics of 2023 F1 tyres
Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen is hopeful the new Pirelli tyres will help further dial out the inherent understeer of the current generation of cars.
Pastrana adds NASCAR Truck Series race to Daytona programme
Travis Pastrana has added the season-opening NASCAR Truck Series race to his appearance at Daytona International Speedway this month.
Turkington continues with WSR BMW for 2023 BTCC season
Four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington will bid for a fifth title in 2023 with the West Surrey Racing BMW squad, the team confirmed on Wednesday morning.
Domenicali: F1 doesn’t want to “gag” drivers
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says the series will “never put a gag on anyone” in the light of the controversial FIA clampdown on drivers speaking out.
Ranking the 10 best drivers from F1's junior series in 2022
The ladder to F1 never gets any less slippery. But a strong cast of Formula 3 and Formula 2 aces proved sure of foot as they continued their climbs in 2022
What racing in Australia means for the future of F1's junior series
The announcement that FIA Formula 2 and 3 would race alongside the Australian Grand Prix from 2023 came as a surprise, not only to fans but to the series’ teams too. But with Formula 1’s boom in popularity bringing more fans to the championships, team principals are relishing the opportunity
Why the Formula 3 benchmark's 2022 season hinges on qualifying
Prema Racing has long dominated FIA Formula 3, taking the teams’ title in two of the past three seasons. But its start to 2022 has been trickier than usual, and the answers lie in its qualifying performance
How the ultra-tight F3 title fight is taking shape
With just five points separating the top five after two rounds, FIA Formula 3 looks set for another thrilling season in 2022. But who stands the best chance of pulling away from that pack, and who are the contenders bubbling under?
The F3 newcomer making good on his unusual career path
Joining the FIA Formula 3 grid as a rookie with a team new to the series could prove daunting for most, but then there aren't many drivers who have the extensive experience Franco Colapinto brings from his time racing sportscars. The Argentinian explains how his LMP2 experience is already helping him in 2022
The British trio hunting for F3 title glory
The 2022 FIA Formula 3 season kicks off this weekend in Bahrain. British trio Zak O’Sullivan, Ollie Bearman and Jonny Edgar have all become proteges of Formula 1 teams, and are talents to watch this year
How an outsider demolished a rank of F1 juniors
His career has been a slowburner but Gregoire Saucy trounced a collection of F1 juniors in Formula Regional by Alpine last year, and now he’s preparing to do it again in FIA F3. Here’s how the Swiss caught the world by surprise in 2021 and how he plans to do it all over again
Ranking the top 10 F2 and F3 drivers of 2021
With a veritable feast of feeder series talent in 2021, FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 produced some of its most exciting racing yet. Although Prema Racing drivers once again dominated the respective series, drivers from other teams also stole the limelight to mark themselves out as stars of the future, or validate their highly-regarded standing
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.