Raffaele Marciello continues winning at Nürburgring

In the second race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the 3.629 kilometres long circuit lay-out of the Nürburgring, the opposition again didn’t have a chance against Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam). His main rival, Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) finished ninth after a poor start.

Thus, Marciello was able to extend his lead in the drivers’ standings to 57.5 points. Second place in the 20th season round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship went to Luis Felipe Derani (Fortec Motorsports), Alexander Sims (ThreeBond with T-Sport) finished third. For Brazilian Derani, it was the best result of the year.

Starting from pole position, Raffaele Marciello took the lead and drove an undisputed victory home. While the 25 lap race went according to plan for the Italian, who is backed by the Ferrari Driver Academy, his main rival in the battle for the title, Felix Rosenqvist, saw all his hopes of a good result blown at the start already.

The Swede stalled the engine of his car at the start and was last turning into the first corner. After a spirited recovery, the title candidate eventually finishes ninth.

Behind Marciello, Luis Felipe Derani showed a good performance, finishing second just ahead of Alexander Sims. Thus, Sims secured the second podium place for his team ThreeBond with T-Sport in only his fifth race of the season. Brit Jordan King (Carlin) and Austrian Lucas Auer (Prema Powerteam) again finished fourth and fifth, repeating the results they had already scored in the first race of the weekend.

Sven Müller (ma-con) showed great overtaking manoeuvres and was rewarded with sixth place from Alex Lynn (Prema Powerteam), Félix Serrallés (Fortec Motorsports), Felix Rosenqvist and Harry Tincknell (Carlin). Roy Nissany (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) and Lucas Wolf (URD Rennsport) caused the only safety car intervention of the race. On lap 14, Nissany spun and the URD driver, who was next up, couldn’t avoid the Israeli. Then, the clerk of the course sent the safety car out.

Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam): “My race was similar to the one this morning, my car was very good again. The re-start after the safety car phase didn’t cause any problems either and then I could pull a gap again very easily.”

Luis Felipe Derani (Fortec Motorsports): “It was a good race. After the Norisring weekend, we worked on improving our race pace and conserve the tyres better, because these were our main problems in the first half of the season. In this race, I particularly tried to avoid making any mistakes, because without mistakes, it is difficult to make a successful overtaking manoeuvre here. I am also happy with my second place, my maiden podium this year.”

Alexander Sims (ThreeBond with T-Sport): “To be honest, I am slightly disappointed with my third place. After the first race, I could slightly improve myself and we made the car a little bit faster, but unfortunately, that didn’t reflect in the result. But all in all, of course, I am happy with my second podium finish of the weekend. I don’t know yet whether I will continue to race in Formula 3 for ThreeBond with T-Sport. Initially, our agreement is only for this weekend, but I would love to be there at Zandvoort as well.”

FIA F3