Jüri Vips became the seventh different winner in eight FIA European Formula 3 Championship races after a confident performance in race two at the Norisring in a race that was halted after a scary start-line accident that eliminated both Daniel Ticktum and Ameya Vaidyanathan.
The red flags flew immediately after Ticktum stalled his Motopark machine on the grid and was hit viciously by Carlin’s Vaidyanathan, who appeared not to see the car until it was too late, with other cars ahead of him narrowly avoiding the same fate.
Luckily for both drivers, despite extensive damage that is likely to see both miss race three later in the day, Ticktum and Vaidyanathan were able to get out of their cars under their own steam, although both were taken to the medical centre as a precaution.
Polesitter Robert Shwartzman was also out on that lap as he found himself edged towards the wall at the exit of turn one by Enaam Ahmed, with the Russian suffering a broken suspension that saw him lucky not to be collected by those following as he crossed the track in front of the pack.
Ahmed led at the restart, with the race reduced to twenty-three minutes plus one lap due to the time lost clearing up the debris from the start line, but it was not long before the Hitech Grand Prix driver came under attack from the Motopark machine of Vips.
The Briton robustly held on for the opening lap following the restart but found the Estonian inside him into turn one next time around, and once ahead, Vips was able to edge away from Ahmed to claim his maiden victory.
Following his own maiden victory on Saturday, Marcus Armstrong claimed the final spot on the podium for Prema Theodore Racing, but despite appearing to have good pace, could not get close enough to Ahmed to challenge for second.
Keyvan Andres’ breakthrough weekend continued impressively as he secured a well-earned fourth for Van Amersfoort Racing, keeping Ferdinand Habsburg behind him, with the Carlin driver losing fifth as a lunge on Andres into turn one saw him run wide and get passed by Hitech Grand Prix’s Alex Palou.
Jehan Daruvala lost time at the start as he was forced to take immediate avoiding action around Ticktum, but claimed seventh late on as he passed Motopark’s Marino Sato, while Sacha Fenestraz recovered from his first race retirement to take ninth as Carlin team-mate Nikita Troitskiy lost out on a number of positions in the closing laps.
Troitskiy was first passed by Fenestraz, and then by Mick Schumacher and Fabio Scherer, the former claiming the final point on offer despite starting the race down in twentieth position.
Norisring Race 2 Result
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