Prema’s Ralf Aron won a stop/start wet final race of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship race at Misano.
With rain continuing to fall, the final race of the Misano European F3 weekend started behind the safety car initially. But after only couple of laps, the organisers decided to red flag due to relentless rain.
After nearly 15 minutes of wait, the race was re-started behind the safety car again. With few laps done, the race finally went green as pole-sitter Prema’s Marcus Armstrong led the way from teammate Aron and Motopark’s Juri Vips.
The Kiwi held the lead for long until Aron eventually found a way past in the left-hander. Behind Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg held off Prema’s Guanyu Zhou for fourth and Motopark’s Dan Ticktum keeping off Prema’s Mick Schumacher for seventh.
The two exchanged positions a couple of times but Ticktum managed to stay ahead. At the same time, HitechGP’s Alex Palou went passed Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala for ninth but he was promoted to eighth when teammate Enaam Ahmed slowed down and fell back.
The race was neutralised soon with offs for both Motopark drivers Sebastian Fernandez and Marino Sato in unrelated incidents. The re-start proved costly for Armstrong as he lost out to Vips and Habsburg in two corners with Aron leading.
The Kiwi then spun and slid down the order along with Zhou who took the escape road. The fight for second intensified between Vips and Habsburg as they went wheel-to-wheel for few corners until Vips got his nose ahead.
Habsburg then fell into the clutches of Ticktum as Prema’s Robert Shwartzman and Motopark’s Fabio Scherer gained places to be seventh and eighth respectively – both passing Daruvala and Ahmed on re-start.
At the front though Aron had built on a commanding lead to win his fourth race of the season leading a first-ever Estonian 1-2 with Vips behind in European F3 history. Habsburg managed to hold off Ticktum to secure his first podium of the season.
Schumacher was fifth with Palou in sixth while Shwartzman finished seventh from Scherer who held off Daruvala in the end as Ahmed rounded out the Top 10 points position – fending off late attack from Motopark’s Jonathan Aberdein.
Position 11-18: Aberdein, Sacha Fenestraz, Ben Hingeley, Nikita Troitskiy, Artem Petrov, Keyvan Andres, Ameya Vaidyanathan and Sophia Floersch.