Nurburgring F3: Rosenqvist moves closer to title after second victory

Although series runner-up Antonio Giovinazzi minimised the damage by taking second, his deficit in the championship has grown to 64.5 points with only 100 left on the table in the remaining four races.

It was another stellar start for Rosenqvist, as the Swede’s lead was up to 1.7s in just one lap ahead of Lance Stroll and Giovinazzi, the Italian forcing his way past Jake Dennis at the first left-hander of the Mercedes-Arena.

Rosenqvist maintained supreme pace to stretch his advantage to 3.7s by the end of the fourth lap, when the safety car made an appearance as a result of the stopped car of Alessio Lorandi, who suffered broken suspension after an overly aggressive overtaking attempt on Nabil Jeffri.

Another incident in the early stages of the race included Pietro Fittipaldi misjudging Turn 1 to hit Felix Serralles, leaving pieces of his front wing on the outside of the corner.

Once the Italian’s car was taken away, the racing resumed for only a handful of corners as Gustavo Menezes went off Turn 1 and got his Carlin car stuck in the gravel.

Giovinazzi climbed up to second at the restart after sneaking past Stroll while coming out of the final turn, but he was unable to keep up with Rosenqvist as the championship leader rapidly built a comfortable lead.

Following a few quick laps, Rosenqvist maintained a gap of four seconds to claim his second victory of the weekend, as Giovinazzi had to settle for second.

The podium was completed by Stroll, while Dennis rebounded from his retirement in the first race with a fourth place, although the Brit now finds himself out of mathematical title contention.

Fifth place meanwhile was enough to seal rookie title honours for Charles Leclerc, with Nick Cassidy a completing a calm race in sixth ahead of Santino Ferrucci and George Russell, who ended up victorious in a duel with Carlin teammate Callum Ilott for ninth.

Despite starting fifth, Mikkel Jensen dropped five positions in the first couple of laps, and rounded out the points scorers in 10th.

Race results: