Zandvoort F3: Troitskiy wins after Ticktum penalty
Nikita Troitskiy took a shock maiden European Formula 3 victory after Dan Ticktum was penalised in a truncated finale to the Zandvoort weekend.
Photo by: FIA F3 / Suer
Red Bull junior Ticktum was leading the race from pole position when he was given a drive-through penalty for a jumped start.
After Ticktum served his penalty at the end of the eighth lap, he rejoined at the tail of the field before stopping his Motopark car for good at the end of the following lap.
Troitskiy, who had qualified his Carlin machine third, moved up to second at the start when Motopark man Juri Vips stalled on his front-row starting slot.
Guan Yu Zhou made a better start than Troitskiy and challenged around the outside of the opening Tarzanbocht, but dropped a wheel in the gravel and slotted into third place.
To his credit, Troitskiy, whose previous best Euro F3 result had been a ninth at the Hungaroring, kept Ticktum within a second before the leader served his penalty.
Once he inherited the lead, the SMP Racing-backed Russian pulled a gap on the pursuing Prema Powerteam car of Zhou, who was over two seconds adrift when the safety car emerged for the second time after Julian Hanses crashed at the penultimate corner.
With Hanses’s car against the barrier at the top of an enormous gravel trap, the extrication exercise proved too difficult for the marshals and safety crews and, after a long time under the safety car, the race was eventually red-flagged.
Behind Zhou, Force India protege Jehan Daruvala made it two Carlin drivers in the top three.
Marino Sato led a battle for fourth place from Motopark teammate Fabio Scherer, Hitech GP’s Alex Palou and Carlin man Ferdinand Habsburg.
Jonathan Aberdein was next up in eighth for Motopark, while Artem Petrov scored his first Euro F3 points by claiming ninth for local team Van Amersfoort Racing.
The final point was taken by Enaam Ahmed, who raced up from 16th on the grid in his Hitech machine.
Of the Prema drivers who had qualified out of position, Mick Schumacher beat Ralf Aron to 13th after the Estonian ran wide onto the dust while trying to pass Sebastian Fernandez around the outside of Tarzanbocht.
They headed the recovering Vips, while Marcus Armstrong finally managed to find a way past Keyvan Andres for 16th.
Thanks to Ticktum’s penalty, Armstrong continues to lead the championship, but Zhou is now just one point adrift.
Race results:
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Nikita Troitskiy | Carlin | 26'25.119 |
2 | Guan Yu Zhou | Prema Powerteam | 1.616 |
3 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | 2.594 |
4 | Marino Sato | Motopark | 3.559 |
5 | Fabio Scherer | Motopark | 4.186 |
6 | Alex Palou | Hitech GP | 5.575 |
7 | Ferdinand Habsburg | Carlin | 6.821 |
8 | Jonathan Aberdein | Motopark | 8.303 |
9 | Artem Petrov | Van Amersfoort Racing | 9.455 |
10 | Enaam Ahmed | Hitech GP | 10.475 |
11 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema Powerteam | 11.719 |
12 | Sebastian Fernandez | Motopark | 12.271 |
13 | Mick Schumacher | Prema Powerteam | 13.669 |
14 | Ralf Aron | Prema Powerteam | 14.797 |
15 | Juri Vips | Motopark | 16.286 |
16 | Marcus Armstrong | Prema Powerteam | 18.046 |
17 | Keyvan Andres | Van Amersfoort Racing | 18.620 |
18 | Sacha Fenestraz | Carlin | 19.679 |
19 | Sophia Floersch | Van Amersfoort Racing | 20.651 |
20 | Ameya Vaidyanathan | Carlin | 21.484 |
21 | Petru Florescu | Fortec | 22.488 |
22 | Julian Hanses | ma-con | 5 laps |
Ret | Dan Ticktum | Motopark | - |
Ret | Ben Hingeley | Hitech GP | - |
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