Schumacher Sweeps Nurburgring to Burst into Title Contention.

Rounds 22, 23 & 24 of the FIA F3 European Championship at the Nurburgring had one name written all over it; Mick Schumacher!

The German of PREMA Theodore Racing completely dominated the weekend taking 2 of 3 pole positions and claiming all 3 race wins to go all the way to 2nd in the championship standings, just 3 points off leader Dan Ticktum and all of the championship momentum.

While Schumacher had also been on pole for race two and three, his perfect weekend sweep was ruined by in first qualifying by Robert Shwartzman, who himself enjoyed a breakthrough weekend, picking up three second place finishes, behind the all-dominant Schumacher.

Race One

This happened to be the only race in which Schumacher didn’t start from pole, a lowly 2nd. That didn’t last long though as he out-dragged fellow PREMA driver and pole-sitter Robert Shwartzman into turn 1 and never looked back. Behind them, contact between Jehan Daruvala and Alex Palou sent the latter into a spin taking out then 2nd in the championship Juri Vips and his teammate Marino Sato, both having to retire whilst the instigators were able to continue.

The incident brought out the safety car, which allowed Ticktum to close up on Ralf Aron for 3rd, despatching of the Estonian brilliantly round the outside of turn 1. Aron was then pounced on by Enaam Ahmed, as he was slow following the battle with Ticktum, dropping him to 5th. Behind Aron in 6th had been Artem Petrov. The Russian had snuck through the chaotic turn one but was slapped with a drive-through after jumping the start, letting Marcus Armstrong claim 6th having started 18th due to an engine penalty. Despite the excitement of the first lap, the race soon turned static with the Nurburgring Sprint Circuit proving nearly impossible to overtake on.

Podium: Schumacher; Shwartzman; Ticktum

Race Two

A similar start to race one for many, as Schumacher led from Shwartzman and Ticktum whilst further back, Vips was, yet again, sent into a spin. This time it was by Ahmed, putting the Hitech car in the gravel and out whilst Vips managed to get back going, once again at the back. This, like race one, saw the safety car deployed and when it was withdrawn, Schumacher still led from Shwartzman as Ticktum couldn’t quite get close enough.

Further back, an actual battle was happening for seventh, as Sacha Fenestraz tried to go round Jonathan Aberdein but the South African held on meaning Fenestraz was vulnerable to a patient Guan Yu Zhou who seized his chance to sneak past the Frenchman. The second safety car was called for as Sato missed his braking point in a big way, clattering into the side of a luckless Ben Hingeley to put the Japanese driver stuck in the gravel. Hingeley got back round to the pits to retire from the race.

The restart again saw no one close enough for an overtake in the points but the battle outside the points was heating up. Sebastian Fernandez defending heavily from Fabio Scherer, Keyvan Andres Soori and Petrov before suffering a puncture, causing him to have a huge lock up into turn 5 and retiring from the race.

Podium: Schumacher; Shwartzman; Ticktum

Race Three

Exactly the same front row, exactly the same result, Schumacher led Shwartzman from the line but Ticktum couldn’t hold on to 3rd as Palou got through into turn 1 where there was no incident for the only time all weekend. Fenestraz was once again on the offensive trying to pass Armstrong but was forced wide by the New-Zealander and Vips capitalised to take what was 6th.

The dullest race of the day had little else occur apart from Sophia Floersch trying to dive under Ameya Vaidyanathan but only succeeded in spinning the British-Indian at turn 3, leaving Floersch with a drive-through penalty.

That was with eighteen minutes to go and yet there was nothing else to note as Schumacher took his 3rd race win of the weekend to become many’s title favourite. Shwartzman took 2nd to complete the triple of runners-up trophies with Spaniard Palou third.

Podium: Schumacher, Shwartzman, Palou

So, with 6 races left to run, Ticktum still leads on 264 but there’s no doubt that Schumacher (261) has the momentum as the series heads to the Red Bull Ring in Austria for the penultimate round of the final European F3 season. Armstrong and Vips are now big outsiders for the title on 220 and 218 points repsectively.