Jüri Vips says he has every intention of fighting for second place in the championship in Sunday’s final race of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship season after securing his fourth victory of the campaign on Saturday afternoon at the Hockenheimring.
The Motopark driver moved up to third place in the standings thanks to his victory and is just fourteen-points behind team-mate Daniel Ticktum with twenty-five-points on offer, and he will have the advantage on the grid as well, starting third as the Red Bull Junior goes off from tenth.
Vips, who had earlier finished third in race one behind Guanyu Zhou and Robert Shwartzman, led away from pole position in Saturday’s second race, and once the early pressure from champion-elect Mick Schumacher disappeared when the German made a couple of mistakes by running wide at turn one, he was in total control of the race to clinch his fourth victory of the season by 3.472 seconds from the Prema Theodore Racing driver.
“I am very happy about this victory,” said Vips, who is thirteen points ahead of the in-form Shwartzman in third in the standings heading into Sunday’s finale. “I am now third in the drivers’ standings and still want to move up into runner-up spot tomorrow.
“In this race, I took the lead right away, but I made a little mistake at the restart and Mick was right there. When he then made a mistake himself a little bit later, I was able to pull clear and drive victory home.”