F3 - Joel Eriksson is the FIA Formula 3 European Championship runner-up

Sport news

In the final race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, one of the things that still had to be decided was the battle for second place in the final drivers’ standings for 2017. The candidates for the runner-up position were Joel Eriksson and Maximilian Günther and both put in their best performances. Günther started the race from pole position and took the lead at the start. Eriksson started from fifth place, was fourth after the opening lap, third after lap two and second after another lap.

On lap six, Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin) crashed into the tyre stacks which led to a ‘full course yellow’, during which all drivers have to reduce their speed and overtaking is prohibited. This temporarily stopped the Swede’s progress. But as racing resumed, the BMW junior was also unable to significantly reduce his gap of slightly more than four seconds to Mercedes protégé Günther. The latter drove an undisputed victory home while Eriksson took the flag in second place. Thus, the Motopark driver, who had won last year’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship rookie title, ended up second in the drivers’ standings after his second season in the series.

Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, claimed the final podium slot as he demoted the new FIA Formula 3 European Champion to fourth. Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam), Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix), Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing), Nikita Mazepin (Hitech Grand Prix), Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing) and David Beckmann (Motopark) finished in the following positions. As Hughes had been too fast during the FCY (‘full course yellow’) phase, he was given a five second time penalty after the race. Thus, the Brit dropped back to eighth place behind Piquet and Mazepin.

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SEASON 2017SportCircuit1SportF3 European ChampionshipCircuitF3SEASON 2017F3Hockenheim01Sunday, October 15, 2017 - 2:23pmSunday, October 15, 2017 - 2:23pm

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