Wehrlein, Marciello on level pegging – tie break to come!
24.03.13
Pascal Wehrlein took his revenge in the rain and scored his first win of the season in the FIA F3 European Championship.
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It was raining as expected this Sunday morning at Monza. As on the previous day in the dry the battle between Pascal Wehrlein (kfzteile Mücke Motorsport) and Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam) monopolised attention at the head of the field. This time the German came out on top even though the Ferrari Driver Academy protégé led in the early laps of the race.
“The conditions were really very tricky, all the more so as we hadn’t had the opportunity to run on a wet track before this morning,” was how Wehrlein analysed the situation. “When Raffaele overtook me I said to myself that it couldn’t finish as it had on Saturday. I was really quick; I closed the gap and I took advantage of the traffic to get back in front. Even if it’s my last weekend in Formula 3 because from now on I’ll be racing in the DTM, it was really important for me to win. My aim is to leave Monza leading the FIA F3 European Championship to show Mercedes-Benz that they’ve made the right choice by putting their trust in me, and also to prove that I would be able to fight for the title in F3 this season.”
In fact, Marciello’s second place finish was a pretty good result. “It was a difficult race where you couldn’t afford to make a mistake. Given that Pascal isn’t doing the full season, I knew it was no use taking risks and by finishing second I’ve taken points away from my rivals. It’s a good result where I’m concerned, but we’re still going to do everything possible to win the last heat today.”
Tom Blomqvist’s first race wasn’t a great success so he more than made up for it with a top-3 finish. Today, former rally driver (1984 world champion) Stig Blomqvist’s son really got his European campaign under way. “The track conditions were very tricky especially in the middle of the pack as you couldn’t see a thing!” said the Red Bull Junior Team driver. “I wasn’t able to match the pace of the others so I had to bring the car home to the flag intact. It was good to finish in the top three in the context of the championship, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
The race finished under the safety car following an accident in the closing stages involving William Buller (ThreeBond with T-Sport), Jordan King (Carlin) and Mans Grenhagen (Van Almersfoort Racing). The three drivers emerged unhurt from their cars, but their teams have a big job on their hands to put the cars on the grid for the final race of the weekend starting at 16h05 this afternoon.