Hot Streak Continues for Verstappen at the Norisring

Max Verstappen took his fourth consecutive victory and his fifth win of his first season of single seater racing by taking the chequered flag first at the Norisring. The Van Amersfoort Racing driver finished ahead of FIA European Formula 3 Championship leader Esteban Ocon.

Felix Rosenqvist led the initial laps from pole position, but a series of safety car periods blighted the race, and the Swede slipped down the field due to the slipstreaming nature of the Norisring race track, eventually finishing sixth.

Prema Powerteam driver Ocon was the first driver to pass Rosenqvist for the lead at the hairpin, with Verstappen following through into second place the following lap. Verstappen would then pass Ocon for the lead at the hairpin and was untroubled to the flag to win by 1.125s, despite another safety car period to pick up debris from the track.

Lucas Auer took advantage of his Mücke Motorsport team-mate Rosenqvist’s troubles to finish on the final step of the podium. Fourth place went to Nicholas Latifi having started the race down in eleventh for Prema Powerteam, while Jake Dennis took fifth for Carlin just ahead of Rosenqvist.

Israeli driver Roy Nissany took his best finish of the season with seventh in the third Mücke Motorsport machine, with Felix Serralles of Team West-Tec F3 securing eighth having started sixteenth. Indonesian racer Sean Galael also took his best result of the season in ninth, finishing just ahead of Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team-mate Tom Blomqvist who was tenth. Blomqvist was running third early in the race but dropped to twenty-first after an issue, but clawed his way back to take the final point on offer.

The safety car was introduced four times meaning the race was reduced to 37 rather than the scheduled 42 laps. Antonio Giovinazzi was in the wars and was part of two safety cars, firstly being tipped into a half spin that caused a traffic jam at the hairpin early in the race that eliminated Double R Racing’s Felipe Guimaraes and Prema Powerteam’s Dennis van de Laar, and then himself clipping the back of Tatiana Calderon of Jo Zeller Racing as she was forced to take avoiding action herself at the exit of the hairpin.

In between, Gustavo Menezes of Van Amersfoort Racing and Antonio Fuoco of Prema Powerteam came together at the hairpin, eliminating both, with the fourth and final safety car period being to clear up the front wing of Jordan King’s Carlin machine that lay on the racing line heading down the front straight.

Norisring Race 1 Result