Max Verstappen also wins at Norisring


Following his triple victory at Spa-Francorchamps, 16-year-old Dutchman Max Verstappen (Van Amersfoort Racing) continued his winning streak at the 2.3 kilometers long Norisring. The son of ex-Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen won the action-packed 16th season round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship from Esteban Ocon (Prema Powerteam) and Lucas Auer (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport). With his fifth win of the season, Verstappen moves up into second place of the drivers’ standings, he is currently 106 points down on the leader, Lotus F1 junior driver Esteban Ocon.

The race at the Norisring in Nuremberg had plenty of action. On the opening lap, Mitch Gilbert (Fortec Motorsports) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) collided and triggered a chain reaction. After that, Giovinazzi had to turn into the pits, just like Jules Szymkowiak (Van Amersfoort Racing). Dennis van de Laar (Prema Powerteam) retired.

Racing resumed after three laps and Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport) stayed in the lead from Esteban Ocon and Tom Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin). Soon after that, Blomqvist damaged the front wing of his car and came into the pits for a replacement. Thus, he lost his third place to Lucas Auer. After Antonio Fuoco (Prema Powerteam) and Gustavo Menezes (Van Amersfoort Racing) collided, the safety car was deployed for the second time.

Esteban Ocon used the second restart of the race to claim the lead, but the Frenchman only held on to the top position for a brief while until Max Verstappen overtook him. After Tatiana Calderon (Jo Zeller Racing) had hit the wall and Antonio Giovinazzi failed to steer away from the car of the only lady racer in the field, the safety car was deployed for the third time. Just before the end of the race, Jordan King (Carlin) provoked the fourth and final safety car intervention as he lost the front wing of his car on the track.

After 37 laps, Max Verstappen won from Esteban Ocon, Lucas Auer, Nicholas Latifi (prema Powerteam), Jake Dennis (Carlin), Felix Rosenqvist, Roy Nissany (kfzteile 24 Mücke Motorsport), Félix Serralles (Team West-Tec F3), Sean Gelael (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) and Tom Blomqvist. Israeli Roy Nissany and Indonesian Sean Galeal scored their best results of the season to date.

Max Verstappen (Van Amersfoort Racing): “In the battles during the early stages of the race, I had almost ruined the nose of my car. After that, I found a good pace, I was able to close up to the two drivers in front of me and then I also managed to overtake them. After that, I could control the race. My car was great and winning at the Norisring is fantastic." 2nd

Pos. No Driver Team Laps Time Gap
1 30 Max Verstappen / NED Van Amersfoort Racing 37 35:15.791
2 2 Esteban Ocon / FRA Prema Powerteam 37 35:16.916 1.125
3 3 Lucas Auer / AUT kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport 37 35:19.223 3.432
4 1 Nicholas Latifi / CAN Prema Powerteam 37 35:22.255 6.464
5 28 Jake Dennis / GBR Carlin 37 35:22.804 7.013
6 27 Felix Rosenqvist / SWE kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport 37 35:23.478 7.687
7 4 Roy Nissany / ISR kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport 37 35:25.020 9.229
8 21 Felix Serralles / USA Team West-TecF3 37 35:26.856 11.065
9 20 Sean Gelael / INA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 37 35:28.007 12.216
10 31 Tom Blomqvist / GBR Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 37 35:28.669 12.878
11 9 Mitchell Gilbert / AUS Fortec Motorsports 37 35:31.191 15.400
12 29 Santino Ferrucci / USA Eurointernational 37 35:37.623 21.832
13 22 Hector Hurst / GBR Team West-TecF3 37 35:37.793 22.002
14 17 Sandro Zeller / SUI Jo Zeller Racing 37 35:38.273 22.482
15 10 John Bryant-Meisner / SWE Fortec Motorsports 37 35:38.617 22.826
16 12 Alexander Toril / ESP ThreeBond with T-Sport 37 35:48.567 32.776
17 11 Richard Goddard / AUS ThreeBond with T-Sport 37 35:49.759 33.968
18 15 Jules Szymkowiak / NED Van Amersfoort Racing 33 32:30.326 4L
DNF 8 Michele Beretta / ITA Eurointernational 30 29:47.088 7L
DNF 5 Jordan King / GBR Carlin 27 27:31.359 10L
DNF 18 Tatiana Calderon / COL Jo Zeller Racing 16 16:25.826 21L
DNF 19 Antonio Giovinazzi / ITA Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 15 15:13.589 22L
DNF 16 Gustavo Menezes / USA Van Amersfoort Racing 5 5:17.590 32L
DNF 25 Antonio Fuoco / ITA Prema Powerteam 5 5:17.919 32L
DNF 26 Dennis van de Laar / NED Prema Powerteam 0 00.000 37L
DNF- 14 Felipe Guimaraes / BRA Double R Racing 0 00.000 37L

Races 2 and 3 are both tomorrow