Alessio Lorandi became the seventh different race winner in nine FIA European Formula 3 Championship races as he held off the challenge of Lance Stroll to take victory in Sunday’s Pau Grand Prix.
The Italian started the race from pole position and after a good start was able to avoid the carnage behind him that saw five cars eliminated on the opening lap.
Whilst fighting for third place heading down the kink on the front straight, Nick Cassidy and Sergio Sette Camara collided, pushing both into the outside barriers, and causing havoc behind them. David Beckmann’s rookie weekend ended with damage at both ends of his car, while both Zhi Cong Li and Nikita Mazepin were also eliminated from proceedings.
With cars stranded on track, the safety car was called upon, and after the cars were removed out of harms way, Lorandi led away at the restart, with Stroll in close contention.
Prema Powerteam’s Stroll put pressure on the Carlin driver for the first few laps, but was forced to settle for second, allowing Lorandi to secure his maiden car racing victory and the title of Pau Grand Prix winner.
George Russell, who secured victory in race two of the weekend on Saturday, secured the final spot on the podium for Hitech GP, finishing not far behind Stroll having started the race relatively slowly before attacking over the closing laps.
Callum Ilott took fourth for Van Amersfoort Racing ahead of Mücke Motorsport’s Mikkel Jensen, while Joel Eriksson of Motopark got the better of Carlin’s Ryan Tveter just after the restart to take sixth.
Red Bull-backed Niko Kari was eighth for Motopark, while Arjun Maini of ThreeBond with T-Sport and Pedro Piquet of Van Amersfoort Racing completed the point’s scorers.
Pau Grand Prix Race Result
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