Jüri Vips secured his first European Formula 3 victory in a chaotic race at the Norisring this morning.
In his Motopark machine, Vips headed championship leader Enaam Ahmed (Hitech Bullfrog GP) and Marcus Armstrong (Prema Powerteam) to complete an all-rookie podium.
Starting 4th, the Estonian enjoyed a reasonable start, only for the race to be red flagged immediately, when Motopark’s Dan Ticktum stalled and was rammed in the back by Ameya Vaidyanathan (Carlin).
It was a bizarre incident, with Ticktum having stalled from 5th on the right-hand side of the grid, while Vaidyanathan smashed into the rear of the Englishman, as he appeared to be looking at traffic to his left. The crash destroyed the rear of Ticktum’s car, while Vaidyanathan’s Cralin also took severe damage on the front.
In the meantime, poleman Shwartzman had contact with Ahmed, damaging the Prema’s right-front against the wall and taking him out of the race. After a fifteen-minute stoppage, the race restarted under safety car with twenty minutes remaining.
Ahmed led from the restart, but was pushed hard by Vips for several laps, with the pair going side-by-side on several occasions, before Vips finally edged ahead into turn one at the start of the seventh tour.
From there, the Motopark man pulled a small gap from Ahmed, but it was enough to neutralise the threat from behind, ensuring his first victory of the season.
Armstrong followed home in 3rd place, after a less eventful race that saw him complete 2.2s ahead of Kayvan Andres (van Amersfoort). Alex Palou (Hitech) ended the day just behind Andres, with Ferdinand Habsburg taking the flag 6th in his Carlin entry.
Jehan Daruvala (Carlin) took points for 7th, only 0.8s ahead of Marino Sato (Motopark), while Sacha Fenestraz (Carlin) and Mick Schumacher (Prema) completed the top ten. Schumacher battled ahead of teammate Guanyu Zhou, Motopark’s Fabio Scherer and Nikita Troitskiy (Carlin) to secure a point from 20th on the grid.
