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Lance Stroll celebrates second win in the Eifel

11.09.16
F3 - 2016 Race of Nurburgring - Race 2
FIA, Motorsport, Mobility, Road Safety, F1, WRC, WEC, WTCC, World RX

Having already won the 22nd race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season this morning, Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) also turned out to be unbeatable in the 23rd race of the year. Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam), who led the race for a long time, eventually had to make do with second place. Placed second in the drivers’ standings, he is now 76 points down on Stroll. In sunny weather at the 3.629 kilometres’ short circuit lay-out of the Nürburgring, Joel Eriksson (Motopark) ended up as the best-placed rookie in third. 

There were already some minor collisions on the opening lap, after which Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam), Ben Barnicoat (HitechGP) and George Russell (HitechGP) retired. As a result, the safety car was deployed and led the field until the start of lap six. At this stage, Maximilian Günther held the lead after having overtaken his team-mate Lance Stroll at the start.

After the restart, the German remained in the lead of the field, but wasn’t able to pull clear from his Canadian rival. On lap 17, the latter mounted a challenge for the lead and overtook Günther without too many problems under braking for the Veedol chicane. In the remainder of the race, Stroll pulled clear from Günther and eventually drove an undisputed victory home.

Behind the two protégés of the Prema Powerteam, Joel Eriksson came third. Three further rookies followed with Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam), Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing) and David Beckmann (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) finishing in that order. Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing), who had been involved in the collisions in the opening stages, came seventh from Sérgio Sette Câmara (Motopark), Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Niko Kari (Motopark).

Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam): “My start wasn’t particularly great, so that Maxi was able to get past. After that, I was behind him until I made an attack on lap 17 and was able to claim first place. Right after the restart, I didn’t want to attack him, because I didn’t want to take too big a risk in the first restart of the weekend.”

Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam): “My start was great and the restart was really great as well. Together with Lance, I pulled a gap. When I had a bad exit of the Bilstein corner on lap 17, Lance was able to attack. Because he is my team-mate, I didn’t take too much risk while defending my position. Once he had overtaken me, I concentrated on maintaining my second place. I am happy with my result and the 18 points.”

Joel Eriksson (Motopark): “I had a really good start, perhaps one of my best in F3. Then, I managed to come out on top while on the outside in a fierce battle with George Russell, and I was third. I wasn’t able to keep up with the two Prema drivers in front of me, but still, I did my utmost.”