Vips Moves Into Title Contention After Double Misano Podium

The 2.63-mile Misano World Circuit hosted rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the European Formula 3 season with Red Bull junior Dan Ticktum looking to maintain his championship lead.

With Ticktum coming into the round as the most-successful qualifer this year, bets were on the Motopark driver, but qualifying only saw hm in 5th behind the 4 Prema cars of Robert Shwartzmann, Guan Yu Zhou, championship rival Marcus Armstrong, and pole-sitter Mick Schumacher.

Race One

The German got a blinding start from pole in the opening race, to comfortably lead through the first sector as Shwartzmann and Zhou swapped places for 3rd at the start. The front 4 finished unchanged as Schumacher took his second win of 2018 from Armstrong and Shwartzmann but Ticktum dropped behind his teammate Juri Vips to finish 6th, losing points to Armstrong in the title race.

Race Two

The race began with spots of rain on the formation lap that thankfully didn’t worsen as Vips led away from pole after a dominant performance in the thunder and lightning of qualifying 2 on Saturday evening ahead of Enaam Ahmed but Armstrong had a shocker and dropped right to the back from his P6 starting place. Ahmed then began to drop back losing places to his teammate Alex Palou and Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala before the Indian retired from the race with mechanical issues. This let race-one winner Schumacher take the final spot on the podium behind Vips and Palou. Ticktum racked up another haul of points finishing 4th ahead of Ralf Aron.

Race 3

As the weekend drew to an end, the weather took a turn for the worst as torrential rain meant a safety car start with Armstrong leading Aron and Vips. Only 5 minutes of running behind the safety car went by before race control called a red flag hoping the rain would ease off soon. And eventually it did and after a couple more safety car-led laps, the race got back underway with 23 minutes to go. Brilliant wheel-to-wheel battles between Zhou and Ferdinand Habsburg and then Ticktum and Schumacher saw the best racing of a quiet weekend in Formula 3 terms.

Armstrong continued to lead until teammate Aron dived underneath him at turn 8, as Motopark pairing Marino Sato and Sebastian Fernandez found themselves going no further after spinning into the gravel, bringing out the safety car. The restart saw Armstrong fall further back behind Vips and Habsburg before turn 1 contact with teammate Zhou put both drivers out of the race. Vips and Habsburg were ensued in a mammoth battle for 2nd with the Motopark driver coming out on top behind his countryman Aron which secured the first Estonian 1-2  in FIA F3 European Championship history. Habsburg followed them home in 3rd as Ticktum took yet another 4th place to add another 12 points to his championship tally, while Schumacher concluded a solid weekend in fifth.

It’s now 12 points that separate Ticktum from Vips, who has moved 20 points clear of Armstrong, after his hopes were dented by 2 non-scores. The next round of the season takes place at the Nurburgring on the 8-9th September before heading to the Red Bull Ring and then Hockenheim as the championship begins to reach an enthralling climax.