After Paul Ricard Dennis Hauger is still leading the FIA Formula 3 championship. But it was more difficult than it looked in France, the Red Bull Junior was struggling with illness and had a hard time breathing at times.

When you are part of the Red Bull Junior Academy pressure is always on, but when you are in your second year of any feeder series championship it’s even higher. But that pressure does not seem to bother 18 year old Dennis Hauger at all this season. And his results at Paul Ricard weren’t half bad; after 9th in the first race (he started 11th in the reverse grid race) he scored two second places and kept the championship lead.

But his weekend could’ve been worse. Unbeknownst to the public, the Prema driver was struggling with what he called ‘some sickness’. He explains in his own words what his weekend was like and where he struggled.

“Not bad, obviously some good points for the championship. Leading now by 6 points or so, so it is still close.

“Qualifying was pretty good, P2. The main difference there I think was that I didn’t have a slipstream compared to the pole but overall it was pretty good.

“Started P11 in Race 1, wasn’t perfect, got up to P9 so got some points which was the main thing and OK for the Race 2 grid. I’d been struggling with some sickness this weekend so especially in Race 1 I was not at 100% and felt pretty bad, I struggled to breathe after the race so I was just trying to survive.

“I got some medicine for Race 2 and was a bit better, so P2 in Race 2 was not too bad. I was the only one on used tyres compared to the guys around. So the pace was looking pretty strong and we were quite confident going into today.

“But then it started raining, which was quite unexpected. It was raining quite a bit. I had a really good start, got off in front and once I got away, just tried to manage the small gap. But then the rears were just not there anymore by mid race as the track dried out. I got caught by Jack.

“Once I got passed, I tried to stick with him, tried to stay there but there was not really much more I could do with the tyres in the condition they were in. Overall it was a good weekend for points.”

FIA F3 is back on track in Spielberg on July 2 – 4.