Juncadella resists late Sainz Jr charge to take second victory at Hockenheim

Polesitter Sainz fluffed his getaway for the third race in a row and dropped to third, behind both Juncadella's Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes and the similar Mucke Motorsport-run car of Felix Rosenqvist.

Sainz re-passed Rosenqvist when the Swede out-braked himself at Turn 2 and ran off the track momentarily, but found himself over a second adrift of Juncadella by the end of the first lap and 3.5s down by lap three.

Juncadella, who started with fresh Hankook tyres on the left of his car, initially stabilised the gap, but saw Volkswagen-engined Sainz - on new tyres all round after saving them earlier in the weekend - close in during the final seven laps, eventually finishing just 0.7s behind his countryman.

Juncadella's win means he leaves Hockenheim with a nine-point lead over Carlin driver Sainz in the Euro Series standings and a 14-point advantage over his countryman in the race for the revived FIA European Formula 3 Championship.

Alex Lynn jumped up to fourth at the start, which became third when Rosenqvist ran wide. But a failed passing attempt on Sainz at the Mercedes Arena slowed his acceleration out of the left-hander and Rosenqvist was able to use his superior momentum to pass the Fortec driver for the final podium spot around the outside of the right-hander that followed.

Lynn finished fourth, ahead of Prema's impressive rookie Sven Muller and Carlin's Will Buller, who made a decisive move on Prema's Michael Lewis at the hairpin on lap seven.

American Lewis ran into the gravel - and the tyre barrier - at the Stadium entrance three corners later after the Prema driver tried to defend his position forcefully from Pascal Wehrlein (Mucke), and missed his braking point.

Wehrlein finished eighth, between the Fortec cars of Hannes van Asseldonk and Felix Serralles, while Sandro Zeller (Jo Zeller Racing) completed the top 10.

Results - 25 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                   Time/Gap
 1.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema Dallara-Merc       39m38.962s
 2.  Carlos Sainz Jr       Carlin Dallara-VW          + 0.763s
 3.  Felix Rosenqvist      Prema Dallara-Merc        + 15.421s
 4.  Alex Lynn             Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 16.673s
 5.  Sven Muller           Prema Dallara-Merc        + 20.244s
 6.  Will Buller           Carlin Dallara-VW         + 22.699s
 7.  Hannes van Asseldonk  Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 23.764s
 8.  Pascal Wehrlein       Mucke Dallara-Merc        + 27.124s
 9.  Felix Serralles       Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 30.022s
10.  Sandro Zeller         Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc    + 42.076s
11.  Tom Blomqvist         ma-con Dallara-VW         + 42.576s
12.  Emil Bernstorff       ma-con Dallara-VW         + 47.258s
13.  Raffaelle Marciello   Prema Dallara-Merc        + 47.770s
14.  Luis Sa Silva         Angola Dallara-Merc       + 54.027s
15.  Andrea Roda           Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc    + 56.139s
16.  Lucas Wolf            URD Dallara-Merc        + 1m03.627s
17.  Philip Ellis          GU Dallara-Merc         + 1m14.232s

Retirements:

     Michael Lewis         Prema Dallara-Merc           8 laps