Nurburgring F3: Gunther leads home Stroll to complete Prema sweep

The win ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll - who won the first two races - repeats Prema's hat-trick at the Nurburgring in 2015 with eventual champion Felix Rosenqvist.

Prema's third straight one-two was under threat from Red Bull young driver Niko Kari for Motorpark, who trailed Stroll in third place for the latter half of the race, never dropping further than a second behind.

Gunther's launch was better than that of Williams Formula 1 development driver Stroll, and was the deciding factor at the front.

Just behind, Kari and Callum Ilott both surged off the line gaining two positions each.

Kari launched from fifth to third, sweeping around the outside of slow-starting Joel Eriksson and Nick Cassidy at the Yokohoma Kurve, withIlott performing a similar feat around the outside of the Mercedes Arena to secure fourth.

At the front, Gunther edged away from Stroll, who had Kari for company.

Gunther eventually claimed his fourth win of the campaign by 3.025 seconds.

Second for Stroll means he leaves the Nurburgring with a 68-point championship lead over Gunther, and with 150 on offer across the remaining two events, can seal the title at Imola next month.

Ilott came home 8.730s behind Gunther in fourth, with Cassidy fifth ahead of Eriksson and Hitech GP's George Russell.

The lower reaches of the top 10 included some fierce racing towards the end of the race, with Ralf Aron defending hard from Anthoine Hubert, Harrison Newey, Sergio Sette Camara and Ben Barnicoat.

With just a handful of laps to go, Camara scorched past Newey at the Yokohoma Kurve, followed by Hubert getting past Aron.

On the following lap, Newey defended from Barnicoat on the run down to the first corner, but was squeezed onto the grass.

The result was that Newey ran deep into the blind corner and hit the side of Aron, and while both cars dropped down the order, they came out of the incident unscathed.

Red Bull protege Sette Camara snuck past Anthoine Hubert for eighth on the final lap, while Barnicoat rounded out the top 10.

RESULTS - 26 LAPS: