Lando Norris (Carlin) was the fastest in second qualifying of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the 4.307 kilometres long Circuit Zandvoort in the dunes on the North Sea coast.

The British McLaren junior driver was classified ahead of his compatriots Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam) and Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix) as well as his team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin) from Austria, who were classified in second to fourth place.

Because Norris failed to slow down sufficiently for yellow flags, he will be dropped two places on the grid for the 20th race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, so that Ilott will be lining up first on the grid. In the ranking of the second-fastest lap times, used to determine the starting grid positions for the 21st race of the season, Norris was classified ahead of Habsburg, points’ leader Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam) and Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam).

Starting grid race two

Callum Ilott (1m28.161s) moved up into first place early in the session ahead of Maximilian Günther (1m28.370s) and Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 1m28.771s). Some seven minutes into the session, most of the youngsters turned into the pit lane to get fresh tyres. With a little less than nine minutes remaining, all drivers were back out on track and ready for the next attack.

Firstly, Jake Hughes (1m28.220s) was in first place, but then Maximilian Günther came to the fore. With his next fast lap, the German turned down the successful attack by Guanyu Zhou (1m28.427s), so that the Chinese only was on top for a few seconds. Günther, however, wasn’t able to hold on to first place until the end either, because a little bit later, Lando Norris (1m28.038s) was faster once again.

A few moments later, Jehan Daruvala spun and hit the barriers, prompting race control to briefly interrupt qualifying. Once the action resumed, Jake Hughes was the first to move up into the lead before Callum Ilott toppled him and finally Lando Norris made a successful attempt.

An off-track excursion by David Beckmann (Motopark, 1m28.505s) with a few seconds remaining and the subsequent yellow flags that force the drivers to slow down at the relevant location effectively stopped qualifying early.

Thus, Norris ended up with the fastest time in qualifying, followed by Callum Ilott, Jake Hughes, Ferdinand Habsburg (1m28.343s), Maximilian Günther, Nikita Mazepin (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m28.381s), Guanyu Zhou, David Beckmann and Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m28.585s).

Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1m28.673s), who initially was classified tenth, lost his tenth place to Ralf Aron (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m28.662s) because of disrespecting yellow flags. Moreover, the following drivers were given a two places’ grid penalty for yellow flag infringements: Lando Norris, Ferdinand Habsburg, Maximilian Günther, Nikita Mazepin, Guanyu Zhou, Ralf Aron, Joel Eriksson, Marino Sato (Motopark, 1m29.238s) and Ameya Vaidyanathan (Carlin, 1m30.050s). As a result, Callum Ilott will be starting from pole position.

Startig grid race three

In the ranking of the second-fastest lap times of every driver, Lando Norris (1m28.271s) came out on top. Second place for Ferdinand Habsburg (1m28.349s) resulted into a clean sweep of the front row of the grid for the third race of the Zandvoort weekend.

Maximilian Günther (1m28.381s) secured third place while Guanyu Zhou (1m28.636s) inherited fourth place from Callum Ilott (1m28.814s). Like some other drivers, the Brit was penalised for yellow flag infringements and dropped back in the classification.

Jake Hughes (1m28.729s), David Beckmann (1m28.743s), Callum Ilott, Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m29.021s), Ralf Aron (1m29.027s) and Harrison Newey (1m29.081s) rounded out the top ten in the ranking of the second-fastest laps.

Lando Norris (Carlin): "Today, the red flags came at an extremely inconvenient time for me, because exactly at that time I wanted to attack with my first set of tyres."

"When I wanted to attack with my second set of tyres, yellow flags prevented me from doing so. With my own performance, I am also happier than after first qualifying when I had the feeling that I could have done better."

Lando Norris (Carlin, 1m28.362s) was unbeatable in the first FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying at the 4.307 kilometres long Circuit Zandvoort: the McLaren junior driver secured his sixth pole position of the season.

However, the rivals of the British talent followed closely. Team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin, 1m28.374s) ended up in second place, only 0.012 seconds down on Norris while Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1m28.442s) was classified third, 0.080 seconds down on Norris. Points’ leader Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam, 1m28.520s) claimed fourth place from Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam, 1m28.521s) and Ralf Aron (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m28.644s). In total, the lap times of 16 drivers were within one second.   

Eight minutes into the session, Lando Norris got involved in the battle for the fastest time and soon after that, he already topped the time sheets. In the remainder of qualifying, the 17-year-old managed to improve his lap time more and more so that he eventually came out on top.

Ferdinand Habsburg was happy with his second place, the best FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying result for the great-grandson of the last Austrian Emperor Karl I to date. Behind the Carlin duo, Joel Eriksson came third. In the drivers’ standings, he ranks only eight points behind Norris.

The current FIA Formula 3 European Championship points’ leader Maximilian Günther will be starting from fourth place on the grid for the 19^th race of the season in the junior category.

How close everything was at the ex-Formula 1 circuit in the Dutch dunes is reflected by the gap of fifth-placed Callum Ilott, who was merely 0.001 seconds behind his team-mate Maximilian Günther.

Ralf Aron (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m28.644s), David Beckmann (Motopark, 1m28.735s), Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam, 1m28.762s), Mick Schumacher (Prema Powerteam, 1m28.766s) and Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m28.824s) rounded out the top ten in qualifying.

“It was a close fight for pole position with my team-mate, in which I eventually held the upper hand." Said Norris "For sure, we all assumed that we would be faster compared to free practice, but the track partly was very slippery."

"Thus, the improvements compared to free practice weren’t too big. I have to admit that I wasn’t certain whether my time would be enough for pole position."

"In the lap prior to my fastest time, I had quite some understeering in turn eight, but I was able to reduce the tyre temperature with a cool-down lap and then go faster again." He added

Lando Norris (Carlin) was unbeatable in the Dutch dunes at Zandvoort: the talent, supported by the McLaren Formula 1 team, won the 19th race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, almost nine seconds clear of BMW junior Joel Eriksson (Motopark).

Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam), who, next to his participation in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship is also the test and reserve driver of the Mercedes-AMG DTM Team, ended up third at the 4.307 kilometres long Circuit Zandvoort. Thus, he maintains his lead in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship drivers’ standings, but he is only eight points ahead of race winner Lando Norris. 

Lando Norris kept the lead with a good start while Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin), who was next to him on the grid, already lost a position to Joel Eriksson on the first few metres.

In turn 1, Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam) locked up and collided with Ralf Aron (Hitech Grand Prix), who, in turn, ran into the car driven by David Beckmann (Motopark). The German’s car turned over and got stuck in the gravel trap upside down. While the safety car led the field, David Beckmann got out of his Dallara unscathed.

Racing resumed at the start of lap six. Joel Eriksson tried to make an early attack on Lando Norris for the lead, but the McLaren junior driver, who showed a convincing performance during the Formula 1 test in Budapest in early August, successfully turned down Eriksson’s attempt.

After that, Norris managed to pull clear from the rest of the field more and more and scored his sixth race win of the season after 21 laps.

Behind Lando Norris, Joel Eriksson took the chequered flag in second place while Maximilian Günther’s third place was never really under threat.

The battle for fourth place that involved Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam) and Ferdinand Habsburg lasted a little bit longer. After the restart, the Austrian overtook the Brit, but was unable to pull a gap in the following laps. Habsburg temporarily had a little advantage, but in the closing stages, Ilott increased the pressure on the Carlin driver again. However, the latter still managed to bring his fourth place home.

Behind Ilott, Mick Schumacher (Prema Powerteam) finished sixth followed by Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing), Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix), Jehan Daruvala (Carlin) and Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing).

Lando Norris (Carlin): “The most important thing for the race was that I started from pole position and was able to take the lead at the start, because overtaking is almost impossible at this track. My restart after the safety car wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to keep Joel at bay. After that, I could pull away more and more and score valuable points with this victory. Too bad that my team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg started from the slightly more damp side of the track and therefore dropped out of the top 3.”

Joel Eriksson (Motopark): “I am happy with my second place, but I am even happier that we finally were able to battle for top positions in yesterday’s qualifying again. In the race, I was on old tyres while Lando at least had two new ones. I think that was an advantage for him. At the restart, I tried to overtake him, but he defended first place. I reckon that second place was the maximum for me.”

Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam): “I can certainly live with third place, I have scored valuable championship points again. I had a good start and I was able to overtake Ferdinand Habsburg on the outside of the first corner. My restart was good as well. When it was clear to me that I didn’t have a chance to overtake the driver in front of me, I decided to save my tyres and drove to the finish without taking any risks.”

As of this weekend, Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam, 1m28.252s) has a new sponsor and therefore his Dallara is now running in striking pink colours.

After his first run in the new livery in free practice of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Circuit Zandvoort, the points’ leader was classified in first place. At the 4,703 kilometres long ex-Formula 1 circuit, Lando Norris (Carlin, 1m28.471s), Nikita Mazepin (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m28.478s), Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam, 1m28.481s) and Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin, 1m28,549s) followed behind Günther.

Under clouded skies and with high wind, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship started into its seventh race weekend of the season. After a total of 80 minutes, Maximilian Günther posted the fastest lap time in free practice.

The Prema Powerteam driver, who is also the test and replacement driver for Mercedes in DTM moved up into first place with only two minutes remaining. McLaren protégé Lando Norris ended up second from Force India junior driver Nikita Mazepin and Callum Ilott.

Behind Ferdinand Habsburg, Ralf Aron (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m28.639s), BMW junior Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1m28.676s), Force India protégé Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 1m28.714s), Ferrari junior Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam, 1m29.002s) and David Beckmann (Motopark, 1m29.049s) followed in sixth to tenth place.

At the Circuit Zandvoort, considered as a demanding track, an off by Nikita Mazepin briefly interrupted the action. After the Russian’s undamaged car had been pulled from the gravel trap, the driver was able to continue and even managed to improve his time.