Schumacher leaves Red Bull Ring with F3 title in reach

The son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher has shone in the latter half of the F3 season winning five races in a row: he followed a hat-trick of victories at Nurburgring earlier this month with two wins and a second place at Red Bull Ring this weekend.

19-year-old Schumacher took the championship lead with his first victory at the Austrian Grand Prix venue on Saturday, and by Sunday night he had extended that to 49 points over pre-season favourite Dan Ticktum, the Red Bull-backed driver enduring a poor weekend in Spielberg.

Schumi III has up until now had a relatively modest karting and junior career, although capable of mixing it among the frontrunners, he lacked consistency. He finished 12th in his first F3 season last year with Prema Powerteam which has since morphed into Prema Theodore racing this season.

This year, his second season of F3, started unspectacularly but, at the Spa-Francorchamps round in July, Schumacher junior tasted victory for the very first time. Since then he has notched up a remarkable run of seven more victories in ten races.

Speaking after his weekend at Red Bull Ring in which his Prema Theodore Racing captured the team's championship, Schumacher said, "From me congratulations to the team, winning the teams’ title is great. Everyone on and off the track has worked hard to achieve this and has done a great job. In this race."

With three rounds remaining at Hockenheim in mid-October, Schumacher leads the F3 championship standings by 49 points and needs to score a total of 26 points in those three races to secure the title.