Zhou opens the season with a victory in Pau

Guanyu-Zhou (Prema Theodore Racing) made the best start in the European Championship Formula 3. The Chinese won the first race of the opening meeting as part of the Pau Grand Prix (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).

Everything was decided when the lights went out, where the experienced driver (more than 60 starts in F3) stole the controls of the race from the poleman Dan ticktum (Motopark), very slow when releasing the clutch. The Briton then fell back to third after a spectacular overtaking maneuver from the outside of the Estonian Ralph Aron (Prema Theodore Racing) at the first corner.

The only Frenchman involved, Sacha fenestraz (Carlin) finished fourth, taking advantage of a driving error by Robert Shwartzmann (Prema Theodore Racing, 8th).

Several neutralizations punctuated the race, due to the exits of the track of Keyvan Andres Soori (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Devlin DeFrancesco (Carlin). Also withdrawn were Ben Hingeley (Hitech GP), Sebastian Fernandez (Motopark), Jean Daruvala (Carlin) and Ameya Vaidyanathan (Carlin).

Race 2 will take place on Sunday at 11:10 a.m. and the 77th Grand Prix de Pau at 15:25 p.m.