It would be Ralf Aron who took the honours in the 77th Pau Grand Prix for the Prema Powerteam. The 20-year-old had been one of the stars of the Macau Grand Prix last year, taking a podium from outside the top ten, but this time it was far for simple, leading from start to finish until the red flag was called due to heavy rain.
The continually changing weather conditions turned sour just in time for the final European F3 Championship race of the weekend. Enaam Ahmed led the cars onto the grid, but it was clear many were struggling for traction around the French streets.
As the lights went out, Ahmed, along with most of the grid struggled to even get their cars up to speed. His Hitech GP teammate Alex Palou had started second (albeit out of position from his grid slot,) but stalled on the getaway, dropping to the back and causing chaos for those behind. All of this meant that Aron, who had started third, snuck into the lead by the first corner.
Aron kept his car wide as Ahmed found himself under pressure for the second race in a row, from Jehan Daravula. This allowed Aron to break by over a second at the end of the first lap. This would only increase as the race went on, until a safety car was called on lap eight.
Contact between Ferdinand Habsberg and Marcus Armstrong while battling for tenth saw the pair retire from the race and after Devlin DeFrancesco made it three retirements in three races, a safety car brought an end to Aron’s dominance.
Ralf Aron wins the Pau Grand Prix after the race was stopped due to excessive rain (Credit: Formula 3 European Championship)
With only 11 laps run the red flag was brought out due to increasing rain and after a 20 minute consultation period, the race was officially called handing the win to Aron.
Ahmed and Daravula completed the podium with the BRDC F3 champion taking his maiden rookie win of the year. It moved Aron and Ahmed up to second and third in the championship while Sacha Fenestraz remains the points leader despite failing to score after running as high as fifth at the start.
Having dramatically missed out on a second place in race two, Fabio Scherer recovered his weekend with a fourth place ahead of Motopark teammate Dan Ticktum who struggled to keep up with the Swiss driver.
Sixth place would go to Robert Shwartzman, who completed a hat trick of point scores ahead of his Prema teammate Mick Schumacher, with his best result of the weekend. Rounding out the top ten would be Jonathan Aberdein, Hitech’s Ben Hingeley and F3 veteran Marino Sato.
Fenestraz, on 37 points leaves Pau with a 3.5 point advantage over Aron with Ahmed ten points back on 27 as only half points were awarded.
