Daniil Kvyat celebrates maiden victory at Zandvoort

Daniil Kvyat (Carlin) picked up the first winners’ trophy of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship weekend at Zandvoort. At the 4.307 kilometres long Circuit Park Zandvoort, the Red Bull junior driver won with a margin of 2.859 seconds from Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport). Alex Lynn (Prema Powerteam) completed the trio on the winners’ podium, while points’ leader, Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam), had to make do with fifth place. He is now 59.5 points clear of his rival Felix Rosenqvist.

Out in front, the battle was decided at an early stage: starting from pole position, Daniil Kvyat took the lead and also defended his position at the two restarts that were necessary after as many safety car interventions. Lucas Wolf (URD Rennsport) had caused the first neutralisation, having already parked his car on the formation lap. On lap seven, Félix Serrallés (Fortec Motorsport) crashed into the Armco barriers, which brought the safety car out for the second time.

While race leader Kvyat handled the two restarts without any problems, Felix Rosenqvist caught Alex Lynn by surprise after the first restart. The Swede overtook the Brit and safely brought second place home. As race winner Kvyat doesn’t score any points because he is a guest driver, Rosenqvist inherited the 25 points for victory. Behind third-placed Lynn, Jordan King (Carlin) was classified fourth, followed by Italian Raffaele Marciello, the leader in the points’ standings, Harry Tincknell (Carlin), Lucas Auer (Prema Powerteam), Nicholas Latifi (Carlin), Tom Blomqvist (Eurointernational) and Sven Müller (Van Amersfoort Racing).

Daniil Kvyat (Carlin)
“After starting from pole position for the fifth time already, I finally managed to score my maiden win in Formula 3. I am really happy about it. I have been working on improving my starts for a long time and I managed to stay in front and pull a gap here. I only had to be careful in the two restarts, because the long straight provides many opportunities to attack.”

Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport)
“I started the race with four used tyres and therefore didn’t expect to match Daniil’s pace. At the first restart, I had a very good exit from the final corner and I tried to attack Alex. Fortunately, it worked out, which gave me a couple of more points to allow me to reduce the gap to Raffaele in the drivers’ standings a little bit further. For the two remaining races this evening and tomorrow, I am optimistic. I have fresh tyres and I will be starting from pole position.”

Alex Lynn (Prema Powerteam)
“My start wasn’t the best, because there was hardly any grip on the track due to the rather low temperatures. At the first restart, Felix managed to overtake me, which, of course, was a pity from my point of view. But third place and the points for second are also good for the battle with Lucas Auer for third place in the drivers’ standings.”

FIA Euro F3