Prema’s Jehan Daruvala took his first feature FIA Formula 3 (F3) Championship race win to make it two in a row from Spain to France.
Pole-sitter and HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes made a good start in feature F3 race at Paul Ricard as Trident’s Pedro Piquet moved into second after clearing Prema’s Jehan Daruvala with teammate Robert Shwartzman also having a slow start to drop to sixth.
Marcus Armstrong was up to fourth with HWA Racelab’s Bent Viscaal in the Top 5 as well after starting from eighth. There were moments in the midfield with ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard, Carlin’s Felipe Drugovich and Hitech GP’s Leoanrdo Pulcini involved.
It was retirement for both Lundgaard and Pulcini with the latter having had a run-in with Carlin’s Teppei Natori. Meanwhile, at the front, Daruvala reeled in Piquet and took second as the Brazilian lost out to Armstrong and Shwartzman as well.
Viscaal started to drop places with Hitech GP’s Juri Vips and Campos Racing’s Alex Peroni getting past him, while the two were themselves involved in a duel. Vips regained the position lost to Peroni but he was handed a five second penalty which got cancelled.
At the front, Daruvala closed in on Hughes and took the F3 race lead at the halfway mark as the British racer then went off road which brought Armstrong in the game as the Kiwi took him on for second, with Shwartzman gaining on both.
While Daruvala headed the way, things got close between Armstrong, Hughes, Shwartzman and Piquet as well. Hughes took second from Armstrong but went wide which allowed both Prema drivers to move past him as Shwartzman took second from Armsrtong.
The fight though continued on but it ended up in a collision when Hughes and Armstrong tried to overtake Shwartzman. The British racer collided with the Kiwi as Hughes retired while Armstrong continued in fifth ahead of Viscaal and behind Vips.
The two were put under investigation as Piquet started to challenge Shwartzman with Vips looking to pounce on the two from behind. At the front, Daruvala had a clear run to score his first feature F3 race win at Paul Ricard and also make it two consecutive F3 wins.
Behind him, points leader Shwartzman kept the rivals at bay to take second with Piquet holding off Vips to third. It was a survival mode for Armstrong and the Kiwi nearly had fifth but lost out to Viscaal on the last lap to drop to sixth.
Jenzer Motorsport’s Yuki Tsunoda fought back from the mid-pack to rise up to finish seventh after overtaking Peroni, who looked good in the early stages but had to be content with eighth at the end of the 20 laps of racing.
It was a fighting run from MP Motorsport’s Liam Lawson and ART Grand Prix’s David Beckmann as well to get into the Top 10 as the latter just managed to hold off Jenzer’s Andreas Estner in the end after Trident’s Niko Kari had to pit for damage.
Position 11-19: Estner, Logan Sargeant, Ye Yifei, Richard Verschoor, Fabio Scherer, Alessio Deledda, Raoul Hyman, Kari and Drugovich. DNF: Simo Laaksonen, Devlin Defrancesco, Hughes, Sebastian Fernandez, Max Fewtrell, Lirim Zendelli, Natori, Pulcini, Lundgaard and Keyvan Andres.