Tom Blomqvist took another podium for Jagonya Ayam with Carlin today, in the final FIA Formula 3 European Championship race of the weekend. Blomqvist repeated his performance from earlier in the day to take second place at the Nurburgring. Sean Gelael was in the middle of the racing action as well, finishing just outside the points paying positions in 11th place. Antonio Giovinazzi saw his strong weekend come to an end early on, after a multi-car accident put him out of the race on lap one.
As the lights went out, Blomqvist made a good start from his second pole position of the day to lead the field into the first corner, despite a challenge from Felix Rosenqvist. Gelael also made a good start and was up to 13th place. Giovinazzi meanwhile was suffering opposite fortunes. The race two winner started from fourth place, but contact with Esteban Ocon and Nicholas Latifi put him out of the race on lap one and brought out the safety car.
With Blomqvist now seeing his early and slim lead depleted, the cars circulated for a number of laps under safety car conditions. When the racing resumed, Blomqvist led the field away, but Lucas Auer was close behind in his mirrors. The Jagonya Ayam man looked to have the position sealed, but an attack by Auer at the end of the first lap of resumed racing saw Blomqvist drop to second. Gelael meanwhile had moved up to 12th place.
At the notoriously difficult to overtake circuit Blomqvist was running close to Auer but wasn’t quite able to make a move stick. The Brit retook the lead briefly in the run down the start/finish straight on lap 10, but out braked himself at turn one and fell back into second place.
Behind the leaders Gelael was still involved in some racing action, putting Alexander Toril under pressure, until passing him for 11th place. Neither Jagonya Ayam men were able to make up further positions though, with Blomqvist taking the flag in second, just 0.4 seconds behind Auer, while Gelael was 11th.
Reflecting on his race, Blomqvist said, “I didn’t get a very good start again I need to look into that. I had the lead on the first lap and the safety car came out, but I felt pretty relaxed about that; the car felt good. I didn’t get a great restart, I just went at the wrong point and Lucas had a massive run on me at turn one, I still had the position but he got the cutback round the outside into turn two and we were side by side for a bit but he had the inside for turn four. Then I was just stuck behind him really. I tried to pass him a couple of laps later and managed to get in front but I ran wide on the exit. I lost a lot of time on that. The car was awesome though, we had so much more pace than everyone else, so I was disappointed not to get the win.”
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