Motopark’s Juri Vips took a lights-to-flag win in Race 3 of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship at Silverstone on Sunday.
The Estonian led the way at the start as Carlin’s Sacha Fenestraz took Motopark’s Jonathan Aberdein to second with HitechGP’s Enaam Ahmed gaining two places to fourth after Prema’s Mick Schumacher and Marcus Armstrong tangled.
While Schumacher continued on, Armstrong retired due to a suspension failure – further denting his chances of the title. At the front, Vips continued to lead from Fenestraz and Aberdein but a fight ensued for fourth behind.
Schumacher fended off Motopark’s Dan Ticktum with HitechGP’s Ahmed and Alex Palou also in the mix. The fight was neautralised due to FCY and a safety car period after a contact between Prema’s Ralf Aron and Motopark’s Sebastian Fernandez.
Upon re-start, Vips held on to his lead with Fenestraz and Aberdein holding position as well. In the fight for fourth, Ticktum started to make the move as he gained a place on Schumacher and looked set to clear Ahmed ahead.
However, a slight contact between the two helped Schumacher to get back and retake fifth when Palou joined in to get Ticktum but the Spaniard couldn’t as the position settled on with Ahmed ahead of Schumacher, Ticktum and Palou.
The win for Vips was on the cards as the Estonian continued to control the race up front. The Motopark driver eventually took it, his second of the season after Norisring to complete a fine weekend at Silverstone to jump to third in the standings.
Carlin’s Fenestraz was second with Aberdein scoring a back-to-back third place as Ahmed ended up fourth from Schumacher and Ticktum. The championship leader tried hard to get ahead of the German, but had to settle for a Top 5 result.
Palou was sixth ahead of Prema’s Guanyu Zhou who had to fend off Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg in the latter half of the race – the two separated by 0.565s on the line. Behind, it was a huge three-way fight for the final point in the race.
Prema’s Robert Shwartzman, Motopark’s Fabio Scherer and Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala were in the mix for 10th. The Indian gained four places to 11th at the start to find himself in a sandwich of Shwartzman and Scherer when the safety car was called upon.
Post SC, Scherer found pace to clear Daruvala and also Shwartzman for 10th. But the Russian fought back later in the race to retake 10th and score the final point as Scherer and Daruvala had to settle for 11th and 12th respectively.
Position 11-21: Scherer, Daruvala, Artem Petrov, Marino Sato, Nikita Troistkiy, Keyvan Andres, Sophia Floersch, Ameya Vaidyanathan, Ben Hingeley, Charles Leong and Petru Florescu. DNF: Aron, Fernandez and Armstrong.