Raffaele Marciello re-increases the gap—

Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam) made perfect use of his home-track advantage by winning the 25 race of the 2013 FIA Formula 3 European Championship season at the 4.085-kilometre Autodromo Piero Taruffi. Alexander Sims (ThreeBond with T-Sport) and Alex Lynn (Prema Powerteam) joined the Ferrari Driver Academy protégé on the podium. As the effort of Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) to battle his way back up ended in 10th position, Italian Marciello could extend his lead in the overall standings to 32.5 points. 

From his pole position, Raffaele Marciello defended his lead and kept the gap on second-place Alexander Sims between 0.8 and 1.2 seconds throughout the race. Similarly easy was the race for Alex Sims and Alex Lynn who finished second and third respectively. Red Bull junior Daniil Kvyat (Carlin) came fourth, followed by Eddie Cheever (Prema Powerteam), who benefited from the retirement of Félix Serrallés (Fortec Motorsports). Behind Roman Cheever, who lives just half an hour from the circuit, Luis Felipe Derani (Fortec Motorsports) had to defend his sixth position against Lucas Auer (Prema Powerteam) while Sven Müller (Van Amersfoort Racing) hoped for a mistake of the pairing driving ahead of him. Italian Antonio Giovinazzi (Double R Racing) finished ninth in his home race, with Felix Rosenqvist who impressed with remarkable fighting spirit and gained a lot of ground securing 10th place. Particularly in the first half of the race he passed driver by driver and battled his way up from 27th position on the grid to finish 10th. 

Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam) 
“It goes without saying that I’m happy about this win but it isn’t more important than any other win in this season. It definitely was a difficult race as Alex was pushing hard. During the small battle with Alex in the opening stages I didn’t think about the fight for the title. But I didn’t take too many risks and had he been much faster I’d have to let him go. For me, it was of major importance to finish ahead of Felix and I succeeded in doing so.” 

Alexander Sims (ThreeBond with T-Sport)
“I pressurised Raffaele a lot and gave my very best to force him into a mistake. But unfortunately, he didn’t do me this favour. So, I had no chance of passing him although my pace was as good as the one of Raffaele. I think we made a good team effort, here.”

Alex Lynn (Prema Powerteam)
“I think my race wasn’t too bad. We realised as early as in the qualifying sessions that my pace was really good and by securing a podium, I successfully made use of this pace. I added important points for the battle for third championship position to my tally and also reduced the gap to the second-placed driver, Felix Rosenqvist.”