Joel was forced to retire from the second race of the weekend at Pau, suffering a suspension failure.
Joel was running fourth when the front-left upright broke on lap 24 of 29, sending him straight into the wall at the Foch chicane.
While Joel escaped injury, the retirement means he has now lost his FIA F3 European Championship lead, as Lando Norris came home second behind Maximilian Günther to overhaul Joel in the standings.
Norris now leads the championship by ten points, with Joel in second and Günther third.
Joel had been putting pressure on third-placed Callum Ilott in the beginning of the race, before opting to drop back and consolidate fourth until the accident happened.
The final race of the weekend takes place this afternoon, with Joel again set to start from fourth on the grid.
Next session: Race 3, 16.00 local time (GMT+02:00).
Comment, Joel:
“What can I say? Massively disappointing. I don’t know exactly what happened, but obviously the suspension does take a lot of pounding around this track and it comes under significant stress over the kerbs. Maybe that’s the reason, I don’t know. Something felt weird going around the fast right-hander in sector two, and then the front left just collapsed going into the next corner. We’ll sit down and analyse what happened and go flat out for the podium this afternoon.”
RESULTS – Race 2
