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F3 - Maximilian Günther wins from Nick Cassidy

03.04.16
In the third race of the weekend at Le Castellet, 18-year-old German Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam) made maximum used of his pole position as he claimed his first win of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season.

21-year-old Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam) from New Zealand finished second at the 3.841 kilometres long Circuit Paul Ricard, Swede Joel Eriksson (Motopark) crossed the finish line in third place. Thus, the 17-year-old Scandinavian also was the best-placed rookie driver in the field. Cassidy, who ended up second for the third time in as many races, extended his points’ lead in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. He is now 19 points clear of his two closest rivals, Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) and Maximilian Günther, who are tied on points.

From pole position, Maximilian Günther already took the lead at the start and held on to it until the finish line. Things became critical for the German once again in the final corner of the race as Nick Cassidy mounted an attack. However, Günther managed to defend his lead and motored on to be classified in first place with his team-mate Cassidy in tow.

Behind the Prema Powerteam duo, ADAC Formula 4 graduate Joel Eriksson showed his skills. Having started from seventh place on the grid, he overtook his fellow rookie driver Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam) for fourth on lap six. Three laps later, he also found a way past Mikkel Jensen (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) and thus had his eyes set on an FIA Formula 3 European Championship podium finish for the first time in his career. Jensen, who came under pressure from Lance Stroll later in the race, eventually finished fourth ahead of the Canadian.

Frenchman Anthoine Hubert (Van Amersfoort Racing) concluded the third race of his home round in sixth place after having overtaken Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing) following an intense battle. In the process of the duel, Newey spun and eventually finished 14th. Ahead of him, Ralf Aron, Guanyu Zhou (Motopark), Alessio Lorandi (Carlin) and Nikita Mazepin (HitechGP) rounded out the top ten.

Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam): “I am really delighted with this victory, especially because I had a lot of bad luck yesterday as I didn’t make it beyond the first corner. This time, my start was good and then I was able to control the race together with Nick Cassidy. I had a good feeling throughout. It still got tight in the final corner, but that was down to the fact that I had some damage on my car. That allowed Nick to make an attack, but he wasn’t able to overtake me in the end.”

Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam): “Today, I gave it all I had. My speed was good and I also managed to keep the performance of the tyres up throughout the race. In the final corner, I made an attack on Maximilian, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. However, it would have been nice had he left me a little more room there. All in all, however, I am happy with this result and also with the weekend in general.”

Joel Eriksson (Motopark): “I made a good start and the car ran great. I already noticed this quite early in the race and therefore was in full attack mode from the very beginning. I was even able to close up to the two guys in front, but I didn’t have a chance to overtake either Nick or Maximilian. Still, I managed to post the fastest race lap time. After the good tests during the winter, scoring a podium finish at Le Castellet was my goal and I managed to achieve that.”