Jüri Vips led from start to finish to win race three on Sunday morning at Silverstone, giving Motopark their second victory of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship weekend.
After withstanding a first corner move from his team-mate Jonathan Aberdein, Vips was able to control the race from the front, while Sacha Fenestraz benefitted from Aberdein being compromised on the inside of turn one to sweep around the outside to claim second. Fenestraz did briefly take the lead on that opening lap but Vips regained the position heading into Luffield.
Even a second lap full course yellow, which quickly turned into a two-lap stint behind the safety car, couldn’t upset Vips, who more than had the pace to stay clear of the chasing pack, with the Estonian claiming his second victory to add to the one he achieved at the Norisring back in June.
Fenestraz was equally secure in second as he achieved his second top two finish of a much-improved weekend for the Carlin driver, his only previous podium coming in the opening weekend of the season at Pau, a race he actually won!
A driver that had by far his best weekend in the championship so far was Aberdein, who took two third-place finishes in races two and three and should have taken the same position in race one had it not been for an issue on the restart following a full course yellow that saw him lose two positions.
Enaam Ahmed just missed out on the podium, with the Hitech Bullfrog GP driver finishing fourth ahead of race two winner Mick Schumacher, who was forced to defend from race one winner Daniel Ticktum for the majority of the race. The two came close to contact at the end of the first lap when the Briton was forced to run across the inside kerb at Club, but the defence from the Prema Theodore Racing driver and attacks from the Motopark driver was clean thereafter.
Ticktum did survive a mid-race investigation for track limits after running off track at Copse Corner whilst defending from Alex Palou, but stewards deemed no action was necessary, and it meant that the Hitech Bullfrog GP driver was forced to settle for seventh ahead of Prema’ Guanyu Zhou.
Ferdinand Habsburg secured his first points of the weekend with ninth place for Carlin, with the Austrian withstanding late race pressure from Prema’s Robert Shwartzman, who took the final point on offer in tenth ahead of Fabio Scherer and Jehan Daruvala.
The safety car was called as Ralf Aron’s dreadful weekend continued as he was collected by Sebastian Fernandez at Club, with the Estonian suffering a broken right-rear suspension to his Prema car as a result, while the Motopark driver found himself stuck in the gravel trap.
It had already been an eventful race for Aron as he was involved in contact with Hitech Bullfrog GP’s Ben Hingeley at turn two that saw the British racer spun around. The incident is under investigation from the stewards.
It was also a nightmare morning for Marcus Armstrong, who entered the weekend as the championship leader but could not achieve a podium finish, with his race ending after just a few corners after running across the kerbs at turn two and damaging his car.
Silverstone Race 3 Result
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