George Russell finally secured his first victory of the 2016 FIA European Formula 3 Championship season after taking the chequered flag first in race two around the streets of Pau on Saturday.
The British racer had seen himself be in contention for race wins so far this season with Hitech GP only to be denied for one reason or another, but Russell finally secured only his second career European Formula 3 victory at the French street circuit.
Russell even had to survive two safety cars during the race, but came out on top to extend Hitech GP’s winning run to three races following Ben Barnicoat’s victories in race three at the Hungaroring and race one earlier in the day at Pau.
It was the first session this weekend dry enough for drivers to fit slick tyres, but two safety cars to recovered the crashed cars of first Pedro Piquet and then Harrison Newey, both of Van Amersfoort Racing, compromised the afternoon’s running.
Sergio Sette Camara secured a championship best finish with second place in his Red Bull-liveried Motopark entry, 2.889s back on Russell, while Callum Ilott took a podium finish for Van Amersfoort Racing in third.
Ilott inherited the position once Alessio Lorandi suffered a puncture while running ahead of the British driver, resulting in the Italian taking his Carlin machine into the pits for repairs.
Lance Stroll finished on the back of Ilott’s car in fourth in the leading of the Prema Powerteam entries, while race one winner Barnicoat was also in close contention in fifth.
Ralf Aron secured sixth for Prema ahead of Anthoine Hubert, with the Van Amersfoort Racing driver passing Mikkel Jensen at the Lycee hairpin to take the place, with the Mücke Motorsport driver being forced to settle for eighth as a result.
Joel Eriksson took ninth for Motopark, while Arjun Maini secured his and the ThreeBond with T-Sport team’s first point of the season in tenth.
Neither Maximilian Günther or Nick Cassidy scored points for Prema Powerteam, with the championship leader Günther in particular in the wars. He was fighting through from a lowly grid slot after a disappointing qualifying crash, and was up to eleventh when he was forced to pit with front wing damage.
Cassidy was battling with Aron for seventh position before heading to the pits himself with a puncture.
Pau Race 2 Result
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