The first race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Hockenheim was another hotly-disputed spectacular one. Lucas Auer on pole made a perfect start in front of Ed Jones. Behind these two the situation was somewhat confused and a collision between Max Verstappen (Van Amersfoort Racing), Nicholas Latifi (Prema Powerteam) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) brought out the safety car.

On the restart Lucas Auer held on to first place followed by Ed Jones and Esteban Ocon (Prema Powerteam), who was back in third after fluffing his getaway. While Auer put in some very quick laps to make the break to his pursuers, Felix Rosenqvist (kftzeile24 Mücke Motorsport) provided some mid-field excitement as he tried to fight his way to the front. The Swede - who was in eighth place on the grid - picked off his rivals one by one and pulled off a beautiful pass on Tom Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) for fifth spot. The latter fought back and the two drivers put on a thrilling display as they went at it head-to-head for several laps with Blomqvist finally coming out on top.

Up front, Lucas Auer drove an impeccable race to take the flag and clinch his first success in this year’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship becoming the fourth different winner of the year in four races. “It’s my first victory as I won in the Stewards’ office last year at Brands Hatch,” explained a delighted Auer. “We were far off the pace at Silverstone, but Mücke Motorsport has fought back in the best possible manner. I made a good start and after that it was pretty easy to control the race as my car was perfect. The car, the team and the driver, everything was working much better than at Silverstone so it makes for a winning package.” 

Ed Jones took the flag in second place, his best result so far at this level. “We weren’t too far off at Silverstone. We worked on this base and it confirms that we’re on the pace. The next step is victory. I quickly realized that it would be difficult to catch Lucas so I concentrated on holding off Ocon without making any mistakes. I’m happy with this podium.”

Esteban Ocon looked on course for his fourth top-3 finish in four races, but the leader of the championship had fuel pick up problems on the last lap and dropped from third to ninth. This gave Jordan King third from Tom Blomqvist and Felix Rosenqvist. Esteban Ocon is still in the lead in the overall classification three points in front of Tom Blomqvist.

The second qualifying session will take place this afternoon (Saturday) and the other two races tomorrow (Sunday).