Both Motopark’s Dan Ticktum and HitechGP’s Enaam Ahmed had a good start in Race 2 on Sunday in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship, but it was Ahmed who had the edge on Ticktum to get into the lead with the Red Bull junior losing another place to Prema’s Marcus Armstrong.
Ahmed led the way from Armstrong and Ahmed with HitechGP’s Alex Palou in fourth from Prema duo Guanyu Zhou and Robert Shwartzman – the Russian moving past Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala at the start with the Indian having Prema’s Mick Schumacher breathing down his neck.
Ticktum had a battle on his hands but the British driver was forced to retire on Lap 5 after his Motopark car suffered a suspected brake issue helping Palou to move into the podium battle. It was a straightforward race then after with Ahmed remaining unchallenged throughout.
The British driver took his first win and was also the top rookie with Armstrong doing well to register his best result in European F3 so far, with Palou completing the podium. Ahmed became the fifth different driver to win in 2018 and moves into the lead of the championship.
In fourth was Zhou with Shwartzman in fifth – both comfortably ahead of the battling duo Daruvala and Schumacher. The Indian had to endure pressure from the German all-through the race to keep sixth – the two separated by a mere 0.305s on the line.
Schumacher had a solid run to finish seventh after starting from 11th on the grid as Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg was eighth ahead of teammate Sacha Fenestraz, who also made up four places from 13th with HitechGP’s Ben Hingeley rounding out the Top 10.
The British driver was ahead in a battle with Habsburg and Fenestraz, but lost out early in the race to drop behind the two and outside the Top 10, but Ticktum’s DNF helped him back into the last point scoring position.
Positions 11-24: Fabio Scherer, Ralf Aron, Marino Sato, Jonathan Aberdein, Keyvan Andres, Devlin Defrancesco, Ameya Vaidyanathan, Juri Vips, Sebastian Fernandez, Nikita Troitskiy, Julian Hanses, Petru Florescu, Artem Petrov.
DNF: Ticktum
[Note: Vips, Fernandez and Troitskiy were handed with a penalty for jump start]