Australian Joey Mawson showed fighting spirit during Round Seven of the 2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands.

After battling engine issues early in the weekend, the PODIUM-backed driver fought gallantly to overcome his lowly qualifying positions during each of the three races.

The highlight of the weekend came in Race Three for Mawson. After carding a pair of 14th place finishes in the opening two races, the Australian was engaged in a titanic battle that involved nine cars running nose-to-tail for the majority of the race.

Mawson started the final encounter 12th and quickly set his sights on recording a finish inside the championship points. On a circuit that had limited passing opportunities, Mawson made the most of any opening that led him to record a ninth place finish.

The result was Mawson’s ninth top ten finish of 2017 and the tenth time he has finished on the podium in the Rookie Championship.

“After a very challenging start to the weekend it was good to finish on a positive note with a points finish in the final race,” said Mawson.

“We found an issue with the engine after qualifying which meant that we had to change engines leading to a grid penalty for Race One. From there the focus for the remainder of the weekend was on trying to move up the order as much as what we could.

“The final race of the weekend was the only one that we didn’t have some sort of an issue in and I was able to get a decent result as a consequence. I had some good battles in a train of cars and it was pleasing to be able to get some points in the end.

“We’re still not where we want to be as a team but I feel as though we made some improvements across the weekend. We’ll now focus on finishing the year on a high over the remaining three events.”

McLaren Formula 1 Junior Driver Lando Norris won two of the three races contested across the weekend to move into the Championship lead with three rounds remaining.

The next event on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship schedule is at the Nürburgring on September 8-10.

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
(After Round 7 of 10)
1. Lando Norris – 313 points
2. Maximilian Günther – 302
3. Joel Eriksson – 258
4. Callum Ilott – 221
5. Jehan Daruvala – 140
6. Jake Hughes – 132
7. Ferdinand Habsburg – 131
8. Guanyu Zhou – 115
9. Harrison Newey – 94
10. Ralf Aron – 85
14. Joey Mawson – 50

Australian Joey Mawson will gear up for the next challenge in the 2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands this weekend.

With the PODIUM-backed driver residing less than an hour from the circuit, this weekend’s round is a ‘home’ round for him and the Van Amersfoort Racing team.

“It’s pretty cool to be able to have a home round for the team and have the track only 55 minutes from the team base,” said Mawson.

“The Zandvoort round is very important for everyone in the team as we pretty much have every employee coming out to show their support across the weekend.”

While it may be the closest circuit to Mawson’s base, the strict testing restrictions means that he has only driven on the circuit on three occasions since moving to Europe three years ago.

“I have only driven at Zandvoort on three occasions, two of which has been test days in the wet and then one race weekend, but it’s probably my second favourite circuit on the calendar.  It’s a very old school type of track,” said Mawson.

“It’s very fast and we run a high downforce set-up which is really noticeable in the high-speed corners. Having so many high-speed corners is always challenging because there is no room for error, but this always separates the drivers a bit more.

“Overtaking is very difficult, it’s probably the hardest circuit that we compete at to overtake on – even harder than Pau or Hungary. Qualifying well will go a long way towards a successful weekend.

“Hopefully the weather is good so we can have a really good atmosphere around the place and we can enjoy some good results.”

This weekend’s event will be contested alongside a round of the DTM Championship. Practice for the Formula 3 drivers will be contested on Friday from 12:30pm ahead of qualifying for Race One at 5:50pm local time. Saturday will feature Race One in the morning and qualifying for Races Two and Three in the afternoon. Two races, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, will highlight Sunday.