Joel Eriksson (Motopark) came to the Hungaroring as the FIA Formula 3 European Championship points’ leader and after the three races of the weekend in Hungary, he also headed home in the lead of the standings, in spite of having lost first place to Maximilian Gunther (Prema Powerteam) on the day before.
At the 4.381 kilometres long Formula 1 circuit near the Hungarian capital of Budapest, Eriksson won the twelfth race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season from Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam) and Lando Norris (Carlin). Maximilian Günther, who was the points’ leader going into this race, took the finish flag in sixth place.
Joel Eriksson started the race from pole position, made the best use of his first place on the grid and led the field into the first corner. In the following laps, the BMW junior driver extended his advantage over his rivals and celebrated an undisputed victory.
Behind the Swede, Callum Ilott was delighted with his second place ahead of Lando Norris and Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam). The Chinese, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, especially had to defend his position against the best-placed rookie driver, McLaren junior Lando Norris (Carlin), which he only managed to do with cutting a chicane. After the race Zhou was therefore penalised with a five second time penalty for gaining an advantage, which left him in fourth position in the final classification.
David Beckmann (Motopark) repeated his fifth place from the eleventh race of the season, he took the chequered flag ahead of his fellow German Maximilian Günther. During the race, he didn’t manage to pull a decisive gap from last year’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship runner-up.
Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix), Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Jehan Daruvala (Carlin) also stayed closely behind the respective drivers in front of them, but didn’t get the chance to mount a challenge. Nikita Mazepin (Hitech Grand Prix) rounded out the top ten.
Joel Eriksson (Motopark): “With my poor performance in first qualifying and tenth place in the first race, I really had a week start of my weekend. Then, however, we worked hard and did our utmost to make the next two races more successful. Of course, I am happy with the fact that I am now back in the lead of the championship.”
Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam): “For me, this race was more exciting than the previous one, because my tyres degraded more. Basically, the speed was there to possibly attack Joel, but I had to be careful to keep my car on track. Therefore, I wasn’t able to attack Joel. Nevertheless, this weekend was very good for me, because I was able to score many points.”