Hard-fought ATS Formula 3 victory for Marvin Kirchhofer

9 drivers from eleven countries competed at the second racing weekend of the ATS Formula 3 Cup at Spa-Francorchamps today. The 7.004-km roller coaster through the Ardennes is an absolute favourite with many young drivers of the ATS Formula 3 Cup. Therefore, the only event of the season abroad is an absolute highlight on the racing calendar. During the qualifying it became obvious that pole-sitter Marvin Kirchhofer from the Lotus team would not have an easy time. He fought hard and defended his first place. Contesting for the GU-Racing team, Freddy Killensberger left his competitors in the Trophy ranking far behind.

The first turn proved to be a struggle. Marvin Kirchhfer (Lotus / Dallara F311 Volkswagen Power Engine) had a good start. However, in the middle of the field Matteo Cairoli (ADM Motorsport / Dallara F311 Volkswagen Power Engine) crashed into the car of Thomas Jger (Peformance Racing / Dallara F311 Volkswagen Power Engine), which resulted in the early retirement for both. Kirchhfer was the man to defeat at the top, closely followed by Emil Bernstorff (Lotus / Dallara F311 Volkswagen Power Engine) and John Bryant-Meisner (Performance Racing / Dallara F311 Volkswagen Power Engine). The Swede was able to break last year's lap record, set by Danish driver Marco Srensen, in the second lap. Kirchhfer set the fastest lap in the third lap, 2:14.824. Another record for the rookie who was able to break away from the grid in the last third. Bryant-Meisner used the slipstream to overtake Bernstorff. Gustavo Menezes (Van Amersfoort Racing / Dallara F311 Volkswagen Power Engine) followed suit, securing the third place in the end. The Swede took the second place and the exceptional talent from Leipzig secured another victory.

Battles between the Trophy driversFreddy Killensberger (GU-Racing / Dallara F307 OPC-Challenge) did well in the middle of the field and even passed a few Cup drivers in the meantime. Hubertus-Carlos Vier (ADAC Team Nordbayern / Dallara F307 Mercedes) gained places but dropped after a battle with Killensberger, who stayed in the first place, followed by team-mate Sebastian Balthasar (GU-Racing / Dallara F311 Mercedes) in the second place and Maximilian Hackl (Franz Wss Racing / Dallara F307 OPC-Challenge).

Marvin Kirchhfer: I think this was one of the toughest races ever. You are able to break away a little, but then there is a long straight again. Mentally it is very hard to stay cool.John Bryant-Meisner: My Push-to-Pass did not work at all, so it took a long time to get passed the other guys and so I had to wait until the guy in front of me did not have any more push-to-pass left.Gustavo Menezes: We struggled a little bit at the beginning. But we got it together and it worked out as planned. I really wanted to go for second, but it was a very intense race, clean and rough. Im very happy.Freddy Killensberger: I had a good start, then I fought a lot of battles with the guy behind me. And then we had a little collision. However, I also had a few battles with the Cup drivers. It went really well.


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