Juncadella crowned F3 champion

Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On awards the F3 winning trophy to Spain’s Daniel Juncadella

Spain’s Daniel Juncadella won the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix yesterday, securing his first victory on the challenging Guia Circuit.
The Prema Powerteam’s racer, powered by Mercedes, triumphed after a thrilling battle for victory after making the most of a safety car restart to grab a lead that he never relinquished.
The Spanish driver concluded this year’s Formula 3 Euro Series in third place overall, with four victories and 14 podium finishes, and this was the perfect end for his season.
Juncadella was running fourth early on in the race but, after jumping two places following a safety car restart on lap five, he grabbed the opportunity to overhaul early front runner Marco Wittmann (Signature) after a slipstreaming battle following another safety car restart on lap 10.
From there, Juncadella extended his advantage – despite some wild moments in the city section of the track – over second placed Felipe Nasr (Carlin) until a third and final safety car period on the penultimate lap guaranteed him the victory as the race could not be restarted.
Wittmann, who had started from pole position and had been in dominant form in the early stages of the race, building up a 2.7 second advantage before the second safety car period, dropped down to fifth at one stage after being overtaken at the restart – but recovered to finish third, 0.662 seconds off Juncadella’s time.

The race was full of incident – with Roberto Merhi triggering a startline accident when he stalled at the start and was hit from behind by Richie Stanaway, while Laurens Vanthoor spun after getting caught up in the incident.
Valtteri Bottas had threatened for the lead early on, but he hit the wall at Lisboa on lap four following a safety car restart and was forced to retire.
Kevin Magnussen escaped with an injured left knee following a high speed crash into the fencing at Mandarin Bend, after he clipped the back of William Buller’s car and was launched into the air. Carlos Sainz and Hywel Lloyd also crashed trying to avoid getting caught up in the incident.