The third round of the F3 Euroseries, on the notorious streets of Pau, turned out to be plain sailing for
Lewis Hamilton, as the British polesitter took his ASM Dallara-Mercedes to a lights-to-flag victory in the first race of the weekend.
Hamilton took the lead at the start and defended it until he crossed the line again 25 laps later, opening out a comfortable 9.39secs gap back to the chasing Signature Plus cars of Loïc Duval and James Rossiter.
“What a great race," the winner bubbled after extending his championship lead over fellow Briton Rossiter to six points, "My biggest problem was trying to stay focused to avoid making a mistake at what is an extremely demanding circuit. It was crucial that I won the start and entered turn one as the leader because, afterwards, I was able to control the race.”
While Hamilton succeeded in defending the lead, however, ASM team-mate
Adrian Sutil lost several positions from second on the grid as he experienced gearbox problems. Finding first gear proved nearly impossible and, even when the cog slotted home, the German's was hit by Esteban Guerrieri, ending his race after just a few metres.
In the early stages of the race, Franck Perera provided the biggest threat to Hamilton, having started on row two alongside Rossiter, but, on lap four, the French driver had to retire with a suspension failure, offering Duval and Rossiter the chance to assume second and third positions respectively.
“It was anything but easy to clinch a podium today," Duval admitted, despite having run third in the early stages, "I was fifth on the grid and held third position behind Perera until he retired. After that, I just focused on defending second position as Lewis’ lead was already too big.”
“Unfortunately, Loic got past me when Adrian Sutil failed to make a good start," Rossiter sighed, "This is still a great result, however, as yesterday’s laps were the very first I had completed in Pau. To have made it to the podium at this circuit is just fantastic.”
