Ocon Survives Downpour to Storm to Race 3 Victory

Frenchman Esteban Ocon completed a near perfect FIA European Formula 3 Series weekend in Hungary by taking victory in race three to add to his race two win and race one runner-up spot. The Prema Powerteam driver won the rain-shortened race by 4.756 seconds from his Italian team-mate Antonio Fuoco, who took his second runner-up spot of the day.

At the start, Ocon just held on to his lead, with fast-starting Mücke Motorsport driver Lucas Auer making a great start to challenge the Frenchman into the first corner from third on the grid. Unfortunately for Auer, his team-mate Felix Rosenqvist then managed to squeeze past the Austrian around the outside of turn two to move into second, which allowed Ocon to get away at the front. Auer would then lose third to Fuoco at the chicane later in the lap.

Rosenqvist was keeping Ocon in sight when he was handed a drive-through penalty for exceeding the track limits too many times, something that occurred far too often up and down the field in Hungary. This took the Swede out of contention for points and he finished a lowly seventeenth just behind another of his team-mates Tatiana Calderon, who runs in a Mücke Motorsport car under the Jo Zeller Racing banner.

Rosenqvist’s penalty promoted Fuoco back into second where he started, with Auer also returning to his grid slot position in third. Max Verstappen took his first points of the weekend in fourth for Van Amersfoort Racing, ahead of the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin pairing of Italian Antonio Giovinazzi and Briton Tom Blomqvist, who had a relatively quiet Sunday compared to his win in race one. The Briton continues to sit second in the championship but now trails Ocon by 82 points.

Felix Serralles scored some more points for Team West-Tec F3 in seventh, while Gustavo Menezes finished eighth for Van Amersfoort Racing. Jake Dennis scored two points for ninth for Carlin, while Nicholas Latifi took the final point in tenth for Prema Powerteam.

The race was scheduled to run for 21 laps but was halted after 18 laps when it began to rain heavily. A light shower meant lap times were dropping by up to eight seconds a lap, and when it became heavier the safety car was introduced, rapidly followed by the red flag.

Hungaroring Race 3 Result