Stuvik stretches lead in F3 championship

The third grand prix of the season began with fog and rain for Friday morning practice, but Stuvik immediately stamped his mark as one of the fastest drivers on the circuit.

Saturday morning’s foggy qualifying turned out to be a thriller, with the lightning-fast Thai driver battling round slower cars on a congested Nurburgring but unable to get in a clean, fast lap. With 31 Formula 3 cars on track, the German was quite congested. A gap finally opened on his last timed lap, and the Thai pilot put his foot down to secure second place on the grid behind UAE’s Ed Jones.

That quickly became first place after a good start to the race, but cold tyres forced a braking error on the first corner and Stuvik was back in third. He fought back immediately and was back up to second within one lap, but Jones managed to pull out a lead, leaving the Thai driver to defend his position and collect another 18 valuable points in his championship campaign. 

Stuvik started from third on the grid in the second race on Sunday, which quickly developed into a procession with little overtaking action. Then pile-up on lap 5 saw two cars crash out and the race restart after the appearance of the Safety Car. Stuvik stayed out of trouble to collect third place and his second podium of the weekend.

The Thai now leads the championship on 105 points, 32 ahead of his nearest rival. 

The next race will be in Spain at the famous Jerez circuit where the Thai driver tested earlier this year and is expected to run well. 

“I am glad I could extend my championship lead at Nurburgring this weekend and look forward to doing the same in Jerez in another two weeks. The team did a great job with the car under difficult and changing weather conditions.”