Hockenheim F3: Stroll heads Prema 1-2-3-4 after contact with Gunther

Although Stroll completed Lap 1 in the lead, it was not exactly smooth sailing for the champion from that point on.

He locked up at Turn 2, which allowed teammates Gunther and Nick Cassidy to go alongside him.

While both aforementioned drivers ran deep at the hairpin, Gunther exited the corner in the lead as Stroll only managed to get ahead of Cassidy with a better line through the turn.

However, he claimed the lead when he dived to the inside of Gunther at the Mercedes left-hander and hit his teammate.

Gunther ran wide and dropped to third as a result.

Once ahead, Stroll quickly pulled away from Cassidy, who was soon under pressure from Gunther.

The duo switched positions on Lap 4 but Gunther was unable to challenge Stroll as well.

He finished 6.2s behind Stroll and secured the runner-up spot in the championship standings.

Cassidy and Ralf Aron completed a Prema 1-2-3-4 with Red Bull's Sergio Sette Camara becoming best of the rest in fifth.

Joel Eriksson kept Anthoine Hubert at bay for sixth to enter the final two races with a 32-point lead in the rookie championship.

F3 debutant Jake Hughes started the race on the second row but dropped to 10th in the early stages.

He gained two places late in the race and he also put Hubert under pressure only to make contact with the Frenchman under braking on the final lap and crash out.

Hubert managed to finish the race but was only classified 10th after receiving a time penalty for lining up on the wrong grid position. 

That allowed Hitech trio George Russell, Nikita Mazepin and Alexander Sims to take seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.

Race 1 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Lance Stroll	Prema Powerteam
2	Maximilian Gunther	Prema Powerteam	6.254
3	Nick Cassidy	Prema Powerteam	10.679
4	Ralf Aron	Prema Powerteam	12.638
5	Sergio Sette Camara	Motopark	18.860
6	Joel Eriksson	Motopark	24.473
7	George Russell	Hitech	26.933
8	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech	28.037
9	Alexander Sims	Hitech	29.049
10	Anthoine Hubert	Van Amersfoort Racing	31.175
11	Guan Yu Zhou	Motopark	31.478
12	David Beckmann	Mucke Motorsport	33.186
13	Daniel Ticktum	Carlin	34.994
14	Niko Kari	Motopark	35.539
15	Harrison Newey	Van Amersfoort Racing	36.256
16	Pedro Piquet	Van Amersfoort Racing	38.418
17	Andy Chang	T-Sport	1'01.925
18	Ben Barnicoat	Hitech	1'11.600
19	Jake Hughes	Carlin	1 Lap
	Lando Norris	Carlin	6 Laps
	Callum Ilott	Van Amersfoort Racing	20 Laps
	Mikkel Jensen	Mucke Motorsport	22 Laps