Raffaele Marciello scored his sixth FIA European Formula 3 victory of the season in comfortable style at Brands Hatch this afternoon.
Marciello’s Prema Powerteam teammate, Alex Lynn, came home 2.8 seconds adrift in 2nd spot, with Lucas Auer making it a Prema 1-2-3 finish, a further 3.2 seconds off of Lynn.
Starting on the outside of the front row, the Italian jumped poleman Lynn off the line, leading the rest of the way with little trouble. “Like this morning, if you are first, it is a big advantage, so it is very important to start [well] and I got a good start and overtook Alex. Then it was easy, because if you are in front, you can manage the lap times.”
Marciello built a lead of nearly five seconds, when he began to encounter backmarkers, but kept his through the rest of race, ensuring Lynn could not get a look in. The Italian spent a few tours trapped behind Roy Nissany, but as the laps ticked down, Marciello managed the pace, leading his Prema Powerteam compatriot over the line. “My biggest problem was Nissany. For six laps, he stayed in my way, but it is very difficult for the driver – six laps was too much,” commented the race winner.
For Lynn, once he was passed at the start, there was little for him to do. “Raffaele is always very good at his starts and mine wasn’t good enough, so I didn’t deserve to win the race today. I’m disappointed to not win the race, but I get another chance tomorrow, so we will take it as it comes.” The 19-year-old added, “To be honest, [the start] happened so quickly, we will need to have a look at the data to see what [Marciello] is doing better than me at the start and try to improve. The balance wasn’t to my liking, but I got quite reasonably close to him when he got stuck behind Nissany.”
Beyond the leaders, there was precious little movement in the field – mostly due to Brands Hatch’s tight and twisty nature.
Following Lynn, Auer headed Sven Muller (4th) home, although Muller did his best to press his Austrian rival. “At the beginning, I was quite close to Alex, but toward the end I got big pressure from the back, but in the end I managed 3rd place and good points.”
In the distance, Felix Rosenqvist (5th) and Tom Blomqvist (6th) playing out their respective battle. Harry Tincknell guided Josh Hill to 7th and 8th, while Will Buller (9th) and Jann Mardenborough (10th) rounded out the top ten. The only action came from Nicholas Latifi who damaged his front wing on the rear of Daniil Kvyat on the opening lap.
2013 FIA European F3 Championship (Rd 4, Race 2; 50 laps) Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Raffaelle Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 35m8.698s 2. Alex Lynn Prema Dallara-Merc + 2.816s 3. Lucas Auer Prema Dallara-Merc + 6.109s 4. Sven Muller Ma-con Dallara-VW + 6.354s 5. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc + 13.332s 6. Tom Blomqvist Eurointernational Dallara-VW + 13.668s 7. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW + 15.762s 8. Josh Hill Fortec Dallara-Merc + 16.220s 9. Will Buller T-Sport Dallara-Nissan + 19.356s 10. Jann Mardenborough Carlin Dallara-VW + 21.719s 11. Eddie Cheever Prema Dallara-Merc + 22.949s 12. Daniil Kvyat Carlin Dallara-VW + 26.728s 13. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW + 27.617s 14. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-VW + 30.114s 15. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc + 35.096s 16. Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Dallara-Merc + 35.924s 17. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW + 37.315s 18. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc + 1 lap 19. Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Merc + 1 lap 20. Andre Rudersdorf Ma-con Dallara-VW + 1 lap 21. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Nissan + 1 lap 22. Sean Gelael Double R Dallara-Merc + 1 lap 23. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc + 1 lap 24. Sandro Zeller Zeller Dallara-Merc + 2 laps 25. Tatiana Calderon Double R Dallara-Merc + 2 laps 26. Michela Cerruti Ferraris Dallara-Merc + 2 laps 27. Nicholas Latifi Carlin Dallara-VW + 3 laps
2013 FIA European F3 Championship points standings Pos Driver Points 1. Raffaele Marciello 214.5 2. Felix Rosenqvist 122 3. Alex Lynn 119.5 4. Lucas Auer 105 5. Harry Tincknell 89 7. Tom Blomqvist 78.5 6. Felix Serralles 76 8. Pascal Wehrlein 49 9. Josh Hill 44 10. Will Buller 39 Pos Team Points 1. Prema Powerteam 346 2. Mucke Motorsport 191 3. Carlin 157 4. Fortec 125 5. EuroInternational 92
