Felix Rosenqvist has put his low-key start to the season behind him and has relaunched his title chase, in particular thanks to a hat trick of wins on the Red Bull Ring at the beginning of June. Since then the Swede, who flies the colours of kftzeile24 Mücke Motorsport, has continued in the same vein winning the Zandvoort Formula 3 Masters from Alex Lynn and Harry Tincknell.

 

Thus Rosenqvist is tackling the sixth round of the season with his confidence at an all-time high even if he knows that it’s very easy to lose out big time at the Norisring. “The Norisring is the one circuit in my entire career which I haven't really come to grips with from a driving point of view, so it feels good to go there with confidence running high - I might need it! The layout may look simple, but it is a very particular track. I have thought long and hard about how to best extract the strengths of our car around there, and hopefully we'll be able to score lots of valuable points."

 

Rafaelle Marciello, however, is still the favourite. The Ferrari Driver Academy protégé has a 27.5 points lead and he is determined to continue racking up the points despite a brief fall-off in form at the Red Bull Ring. The Italian is at home on this circuit as proved by his pole position and a victory last year in the streets of Nuremberg.

 

As always, Marciello can count on the fact that his team-mates in the Prema Powerteam Lucas Auer, Alex Lynn and Eddie Cheever will do their best to emulate their team leader. Auer and Lynn are lying third and fourth in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in which they still have a good chance like Harry Tincknell (Carlin), above all if the situation between the two leaders gets a bit tense! These three drivers have to seize the slightest opportunity this weekend, which marks the start of the second part of the season.

 

For the three German drivers in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship this is the meeting in which they can’t afford to mess up as if they score a good result at the Norisring they will enjoy big media fallout in Germany. Lucas Wolf (URD Rennsport) clinched a top-3 finish in Austria and he is now aiming for victory. Seven Müller (ma-con), who has been a consistent top-5 finisher in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, and André Rudersdorf (ma-con) would be happy with a place in the first three.  

 

There are a few changes on the entry list. While Josh Hill (Fortec Motorsports), William Buller (Fortec Motorsports) and Mans Grenhagen (Van Amersfoort Racing) have decided to call time on their season for various reasons, experienced British driver Alexander Sims will join ThreeBond with T-Sport and New Zealander Nick Cassidy, double winner of the Toyota Racing Series, will back up Tom Blomqvist at Eurointernational.