Felix Rosenqvist took his 10th win of the year at the historic Nürburgring this morning, cruising to victory ahead of teammate Nick Cassidy, for whom this is the second race weekend of the year, and Carlin’s Callum Illot. Main championship contenders Giovinazzi and Leclerc finished 10th and 4th respectively, while Jake Dennis retired once more after first lap contact with Leclerc.
After setting another 3 pole positions yesterday to add to his collection of 13 already accumulated in the season, Rosenqvist and Cassidy lined up on the front row, with Jake Dennis in P4 making Callum Illot in P3 the only non Prema driver on the top two rows of the grid. The start was clean for all drivers, the action being saved for the first corner where Dennis and Leclerc touched, both picking up front wing damage. Giovinazzi ran wide, tumbling out of the top 10 while Illot maintained position in 3rd.
Things only got worse for Dennis as the black and orange flag was waved at him due to the damage – the Brit’s only option being to pit for a new nose cone. In the lower realms of the points Lance Stroll and Arjun Maini battled it out, almost being overtaken by Sette Camara in the process before Giovinazzi denied the Brazilian gaining a place thanks to a superb sweep up the inside, putting Giovinazzi back in the point scoring positions.
With a damaged front wing Leclerc defended mercilessly throughout the race, his efforts rewarded by a solid 4th place finish ahead of Mikkel Jensen, who had pushed him all the way to the finish line. Leclerc is one of 4 drivers who entered the weekend with the mathematical possibility of winning the championship, and finishing the second highest out of all of these certainly hasn’t hindered his final push for points. The Monegasque driver is also leading the rookie championship by over 100 to George Russell, and can wrap up the championship this weekend should Russell record another non-points-scoring finish like in race 1.
The intense battle continues at 15:40 local time, where Rosenqvist and Leclerc will hope to cement their title chance further.
