Hulkenberg gets Zandvoort win back

Pre-season Formula 3 Euro Series favourite Nico Hulkenberg has taken the lead of the championship after the Dutch motorsport governing body, KNAF, reinstated his Zandvoort victory ahead of this weekend's round at Brands Hatch in England.

The ten points he receives is enough to push the ART Grand Prix driver nine ahead of Edoardo Mortara.

The court ruled two weeks ago that the mid-race deployment of Hulkenberg's fire extinguisher was the only reason his car was underweight after the Zandvoort race, after the team proved a new fire extinguisher put him 0.6 kg over the 540kg limit.

KNAF then had to decide if it was safe that Hulkenberg had chosen to carry on and finish the race, and as the extinguisher had not deployed properly in the cockpit. It did not approve of Hulkenberg's actions, which it called 'careless', but still agreed to give him the victory back.

The ruling is also dependent on ART not appealing the results of the Sunday race, for which Hulkenberg would have started eighth rather than at the back of the grid. In Gary Paffett's German F3 title year of 2002, a race was once retrospectively annulled due to an erroneous black flag incident, which set an alarming precedent in this area.

ART chief Frederic Vasseur told autosport.com that he has agreed not to appeal the Sunday race.

Hulkenberg's Brands Hatch weekend didn't get off to such a good start, however. He was only 14th fastest, three places behind Mortara in free practice this morning.

Renger van der Zande topped the times for Prema, but less than a tenth of a second covered the top six going into this afternoon's crucial qualifying session.