Mücke driver Felix Rosenqvist dominates at Red Bull Ring…

The 13th season round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship saw Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) score an undisputed victory. At the 4.326 kilometres long Red Bull Ring in the Austrian province of Styria, he won the dash towards the first corner and then continuingly extended his lead. At the finish, the 21-year old Swede was 14.306 seconds clear of Daniil Kvyat (Carlin), who had started from pole position. For the Red Bull-backed junior driver, second place is his best result in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship to date. Third place was taken by 19-year old Briton Jordan King (Carlin), who celebrated his maiden podium finish in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship after a long battle with Lucas Wolf (URD Rennsport). Italian Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam), a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, took the chequered flag in fourth place and remains in the lead of the drivers’ standings. His margin over his main rival Felix Rosenqvist is 67.5 points.

While Felix Rosenqvist’s victory was never in jeopardy throughout the 24 laps’ race distance and guest driver Daniil Kvyat also safely drove second place home, Jordan King had to work considerably harder. For more than half of the race, the rookie driver was involved in a battle for third place with Lucas Wolf, with Wolf initially holding on to his position. The URD driver successfully defended his position against King until lap 16, but then had to let his rival past. Soon after that, Nicholas Latifi (Carlin) also moved ahead of Wolf, who went on to drop down further through the ranks. Due to a collision with Tom Blomqvist (Eurointernational), Wolf was also called in for a drive-through penalty and dropped to 16th place.

Raffaele Marciello, who had started from 13th place, had an equally busy day: in thrilling duels, the Italian worked his way up to fourth position. Behind him, Latifi took the chequered flag, followed by Sven Müller (ma-con), Alex Lynn (Prema Powerteam), Eddie Cheever (Prema Powerteam), Michael Lewis (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) and Lucas Auer (Prema Powerteam), the only Austrian in the field. Having spun after a collision in the early stages of the race, Auer had dropped down, but secured the final slot in the top ten after a spirited recovery. 

Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) 
“My start was good and I was able to pull a gap right away. My car ran great throughout the race. After the rather poor start into the season at Monza, I reckon that we are now on the right way and meanwhile, we are able to keep up with Prema and Carlin as well.”

Daniil Kvyat (Carlin)
“My start wasn’t too bad, but Felix’s was simply even better. Initially, I thought that I could keep up with him, but I didn’t succeed. Thus, it was a rather boring race for me. Now, we have to see why we weren’t able to follow Felix. But I think that second place is not too bad either.”

Jordan King (Carlin)
“So far, my season has been rather disappointing, but being on the podium at last is nice. Lucas Wolf defended very heavily, so it took longer for me to finally overtake him. The battle with him was a close one and I enjoyed it very much.”