Nurburgring F3: Hughes holds off Norris for maiden victory

Jake Hughes claimed his first European Formula 3 victory with a lights-to-flag drive in the second race at the Nurburgring.

After a wet Saturday, the final day of action kicked off on a dry track, with pole-sitter Hughes leading fellow front-row starter Callum Ilott into Turn 1 at the start.

The latter was quickly overtaken by Norris but, by the time the championship leader took second, Hughes already had a comfortable lead.

The Hitech driver held a three-second gap for the majority of the race, but Norris launched a late charge and was within a second of his compatriot over the last three laps.

Yet Hughes did not crack under pressure and crossed the line in first as Norris extended his championship lead by 18 points in second.

Ilott was unable to keep up with the aforementioned duo but still completed an all-British podium in third, closely followed by Tadasuke Makino, who secured his best finish in the championship.

Ralf Aron and Ferdinand Habsburg were a close fifth and sixth, while Joey Mawson was a further 10 seconds behind in seventh.

Mawson's teammate Harrison Newey held off Joel Eriksson for eighth, as Jehan Daruvala completed the top 10.

Maximilian Gunther was unable to recover sufficiently from 15th on the grid, and only finished 12th, allowing Norris to build a 54-point lead.

The only retirement of the race was Marino Sato, who collided with Motopark teammate Keyvan Andres at the NGK chicane early in the race.

Race results:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Jake Hughes	Hitech GP	35'37.113
2	Lando Norris	Carlin	0.539
3	Callum Ilott	Prema Powerteam	12.767
4	Tadasuke Makino	Hitech GP	13.814
5	Ralf Aron	Hitech GP	15.205
6	Ferdinand Habsburg	Carlin	16.196
7	Joey Mawson	Van Amersfoort Racing	26.790
8	Harrison Newey	Van Amersfoort Racing	33.639
9	Joel Eriksson	Motopark	36.104
10	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	37.452
11	Maximilian Gunther	Prema Powerteam	40.309
12	Sacha Fenestraz	Carlin	41.728
13	Guan Yu Zhou	Prema Powerteam	44.965
14	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	45.722
15	David Beckmann	Motopark	47.342
16	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech GP	47.919
17	Pedro Piquet	Van Amersfoort Racing	48.108
18	Max Defourny	Van Amersfoort Racing	49.647
19	Keyvan Andres	Motopark	54.836
20	Petru Florescu	Motopark	59.408
21	Ameya Vaidyanathan	Carlin	59.874
Ret	Marino Sato	Motopark	-