Motorsports Mondial

Photo: F3esmedia

Season stats confirm Roberto Merhi’s dominance

Roberto Merhi (Prema Powerteam) did not only win the 2011 Formula 3 Euro Series title but also secured the top position in nearly every season statistic: He won more races than anybody else, secured more podiums than any other driver, clinched the biggest number of poles for the first and the third races – and the biggest number of fastest race laps also was set by the Prema driver. In the end, there was just one statistic where he didn’t prevail: when it comes to first places in the practice sessions and pre-event tests, he was defeated by Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke Motorsport).

A total of seven drivers were the quickest in one or several pre-event tests or practices sessions – but only Merhi, Marco Wittmann (Signature), Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam) and Nigel Melker (Mücke Motorsport) succeeded in confirming this performance by setting the fastest (pole for race three) or the best second-fastest lap (pole for race one). Here, champion Merhi delivered in particularly impressive style by securing a total of eight pole positions. In four qualifying sessions he set the fastest lap time and four times he set the best second-fastest qualifying lap

Altogether, the Spaniard was involved in 20 presentation ceremonies while he didn’t make it to the top three in just seven races. And in 11 of his 20 presentation ceremonies, he even received the trophy for the race winner. Second position in the podium-finish ranking was secured by Daniel Juncadella (14 podiums), thus underlining the dominance of Prema Powerteam in the 2011 season. In addition to the drivers’ championship courtesy of Roberto Merhi, the Italians also secured the title for the best team in the 2011 season. Vice-champion Marco Wittman secured just one podium less than Juncadella and in the race-win ranking, he finished second behind Merhi, with five successes under his belt. In this statistic, Juncadella had to share the third position with the best rookie of the season, Nigel Melker: both drivers celebrated for Formula 3 Euro Series race wins, this year. A total of seven drivers secured one race win at least and 12 of the hopeful young guns made it to the podium, with two of them – Marco Sørensen (Mücke Motorsport) and Tom Dillmann (Motopark) – having been guest racers. Denmark’s Sørensen did so in particularly impressive style: at Silverstone, he did not only celebrate his only podium but even did so by winning a race right away.