Tom Blomqvist took a podium for the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team today, in the first FIA Formula 3 European Championship race of the weekend at Hockenheim. In a relatively uneventful race, Blomqvist started and finished third and was followed home by team mate Antonio Giovinazzi. Sean Gelael made it three cars in the points, taking 10th place at the chequered flag.
It was a formation start for the front runners, who all stayed in position as the lights went out. Verstappen, Blomqvist’s rival for second in the championship, led the field in P1, with Blomqvist third and Giovinazzi third. Gelael had lost one place off the start and was running in ninth.
At the front the order remained unchanged lap after lap, although further down the field there was a little more action. Gelael found himself having to defend hard from Felix Serralles in the fight for ninth on lap eighth, with Serralles finally getting past and demoting Gelael to 10th place.
At the chequered flag Blomqvist took his 13th podium of the season, also keeping himself in contention for the title of vice-champion, with two races to go Verstappen has a 13 point lead over the Jagonya Ayam man.
Third placed man Blomqvist reflected, “It was a pretty uneventful race; I got off the line well, held third position and then on about the second lap I think I made quite a big mistake - I struggled a little more this morning - and my aim really was to maximise the best possible position. On those tyres I think third is the best we could have done, the guys in front were a little quicker than me. But I think we’ll be ok for the next two races, with slightly better tyres starting from pole.”
Giovinazzi added, “It was a good race, I had a good start but it’s hard to pass here. The track was really slippy today which created a bit of oversteer. I was just hoping to finish the race well. We’ll be checking the car for the next race; we’re starting from the front row so it’s important to do well.”
“We tried something different with the car because we were struggling with understeer yesterday”, said Gelael. “Unfortunately the track was quite different from yesterday though, it was much more slippy so we had lots of oversteer today. We finished tenth but the pace wasn’t great, so we have to work on that for the second race this afternoon.”
Race two of the weekend will take place later today, with Blomqvist lining up on pole, Giovinazzi second and Gelael 10th.
-Ends-
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