Formula 3 Euro Series champion Edoardo Mortara scored his seventh win of the season during a rain-hit race at Hockenheim.
The race started behind the safety car due to the treacherous weather conditions, with polesitter Mortara leading the way. Once the race got fully underway, the Italian Signature driver was able to pull away a little, as Roberto Merhi defended second place from Valtteri Bottas. Merhi went off the road on lap eight, allowing Bottas to start closing the gap to the leader, which stood at more than five seconds. By the beginning of the penultimate lap the gap had shrunk down to 1.2 seconds, when Bottas attempted a lunge past Mortara at the new Turn 4, but out ran wide, losing two seconds.
Mortara held on to take the checkered flag ahead of Bottas, while Marco Wittmann finished third, with Alexander Sims holding Merhi off for fourth. Laurens Vanthoor was sixth for Signature, ahead of Christopher Zanella and Daniel Juncadella. Eighth place was not enough for the Spaniard to stop Antonio Felix da Costa, who finished ninth, from winning the rookie of the year title.
The Mortara Masterclass In How To Drive In The Rain
Mortara was pleased to have held on to take the victory. “My margin was quite big, but then I made a stupid mistake,” he said after the race. “That allowed Valtteri to close up to me. At the end, he even was slightly faster, but he also made a mistake. That made the final lap somewhat easier for me.”
Bottas said: “I am disappointed, because I could have done with the points for victory. When I locked up, I didn’t want to attack Edoardo at all. In the spray, I just couldn’t see a thing.”
Wittmann said: “It was my goal not to lose too many points on Valtteri, because he is my rival in the battle for runner-up spot. Even though it hasn’t been decided yet, my position is quite good with a margin of six points over Valtteri with only one race remaining.”
