Mick Schumacher, the son of the seven time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher, won his first race after a good start at Oschersleben in the final race of the weekend. The fans were denied a late battle between the German and his van Amersfoort Racing team mate Joey Mawson, because of the deployment of the safety car.
The grid had been the results of yesterday’s race 1 with the top 10 reversed. This meant that Schumacher, who finished ninth was able to start the 30 minute race behind Thomas Preining and in front of Tim Zimmermann and team mate Harrison Newey.
It was not a good get away for Newey, as he jumped the start, the son of Adrian Newey was forced to complete a drive through, putting him to the back of the field. Into the first corner, Schumacher and Zimmermann overtook Preining. While at the back, Luca Engstler hit the kerb launching him into Alain Valente. The crash brought out the safety car as Valente’s car was dragged away.
With 21 minutes left on the clock, the race restarted. Schumacher broke away to have a 2 second gap over the field, while second placed Zimmermann was under pressure from Preining and Joel Eriksson behind.
The man on the move after the restart was fifth placed Joey Mawson. After disposing of Eriksson he managed to grab second place only one lap later. This meant he was now in free air and set about chasing team mate Schumacher for the lead. Meanwhile further back, Michael Walderr lost out to championship leader Marvin Dienst and his closest rival; Ralf Aron.
Walderr, clearly struggling, was taken by Mattia Drudi, in a move similar to Daniel Ricciardo‘s infamous overtake on his team mate at Monza last year. Further back, Janneau Esmeijer was hit wide and ran over the grass, causing other cars to take avoiding action as he re-entered the track at full speed. The incident caused him to drop several places.
It was clear that Mawson was catching Schumacher and with 6 minutes to go had managed to close 0.7 seconds in one lap. There were problems for Zimmermann as the car crawled to halt with no power, but as the leading 2 pulled onto the finish straight, the crowds were denied a close battle as another safety car was called for Benjamin Mazatis who was stuck in the gravel in turn 1.
The race ended under safety car, allowing Schumacher to claim his first win of the season with a van Amersfoort 1-2, as Preining rounded out the top 3.
Oschersleben Race 3 Result
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