Nurburgring 2: Winkelhock wins for Merc

Winkelhock, the son of late grand prix racer Manfred, scored his maiden win of the season in his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes, the first time the AMG-tuned engine has won a race.

Yesterday's race winner Timo Glock (BSR Dallara-Opel) made a sensational start, as Winkelhock bogged down on pole, and grabbed the lead. Despite this setback, Winkelhock always looked like he had the measure of Glock, and he repassed him at the chicane on lap six after Timo ran wide on to the kerb at the second element of the Bitkurve. Once ahead, Winkelhock romped away to a convincing victory.

"Once I was ahead of him the car was perfect," said Winkelhock. "It's a great feeling to score Mercedes' first F3 win."

Glock held on to second, ahead of Kousuke Matsuura (PREMA Dallara-Opel), Joao Paolo de Oliveira (Kolles Dallara-Opel) and Jeffrey van Hooydonk (Ghinzani Dallara-Mugen).

Gary Paffett finished seventh for the second time this weekend, but continues to hold a convincing championship lead, after he struggled with traction out of the slow corners. He briefly held sixth place, but a brave lunge from Cesar Campanico (PREMA Dallara-Opel) at Turn 1 swiped the position away.


1 Markus Winkelhock, BSR Dallara-Opel, 22 laps
2 Timo Glock, KMS Dallara-Opel, +4.4s
3 Jeffrey van Hooydonk, Ghinzani Dallara-Mugen, +5.5s
4 Joao Paolo de Oliveira, Team Kolles Dallara-Opel, +8.0s
5 Kousuke Matsuura, PREMA Dallara-Opel, +9.7s
6 Cesar Campanico, PREMA Dallara-Opel, +11.5s