Sochi GP3: Eriksson takes first win, Ocon closes on points lead
Jimmy Eriksson took his first GP3 win of the season with a controlled lights to flag victory at Sochi, as Luca Ghiotto's championship lead was cut to just two points
Eriksson, who agonisingly lost out on victory on the penultimate lap at Monza, made a great start from pole position
The same couldn't be said for his Koiranen GP team-mate and fellow front row starter Matt Parry as he dropped down the order and retired on the opening lap.
A fast-starting Antonio Fuoco hassled Eriksson for the lead into Turn 2, but the pair made contact.
Eriksson rejoined in the lead but Fuoco dropped behind Carlin team-mate Jann Mardenborough to third.
For the opening few laps Mardenborough pressured Eriksson but the Swede remained unfazed, increasing his lead throughout.
Crucially for the championship battle, Ghiotto was down in sixth after making slight contact with Emil Bernstorff on the opening lap, before running wide and falling to ninth and outside of the points.
His title rival Esteban Ocon however was up in fourth, and all over the back of Fuoco for third.
Ferrari junior Fuoco defended hard for several laps but he couldn't keep Ocon behind.
The Mercedes protege was squeezed up against the wall on the run down to Turn 2 by Fuoco, but he refused to back out of the move and edged past to take third.
Fuoco was equally aggressive with Bernstorff. The Italian was shown the black and white flag but that didn't stop him keeping Bernstorff at bay.
Bernstorff thought he had the move done on the outside of Turn 2 but he ended up running wide and lost a place to Trident's Artur Janosz.
At the front Eriksson was well clear but Mardenborough was falling back towards Ocon who was on a charge, setting consecutive fastest laps.
Within a few laps Ocon was glued to the back of Mardenborough before making yet another brave move stick, this time on the inside of Turn 16 to take second.
Eriksson crossed the line 2.7 seconds ahead of that battle, with Ocon securing his ninth consecutive second place finish.
Mardenborough took his first podium since the opening weekend at Barcelona.
Behind the leaders Janosz was able to keep Bernstorff and Marvin Kirchhofer at bay, while Ghiotto picked up a crucial point after passing Alex Palou on the final lap.
RESULTS - 15 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jimmy Eriksson | Koiranen GP | 28m34.265s |
2 | Esteban Ocon | ART Grand Prix | 2.778s |
3 | Jann Mardenborough | Carlin | 4.936s |
4 | Antonio Fuoco | Carlin | 10.459s |
5 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 13.005s |
6 | Emil Bernstorff | Arden International | 15.035s |
7 | Marvin Kirchhofer | ART Grand Prix | 15.571s |
8 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 16.289s |
9 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 16.796s |
10 | Seb Morris | Status Grand Prix | 23.284s |
11 | Alex Fontana | Status Grand Prix | 27.132s |
12 | Alfonso Celis | ART Grand Prix | 27.847s |
13 | Michele Beretta | Trident | 29.822s |
14 | Pal Varhaug | Jenzer Motorsport | 31.864s |
15 | Mitch Gilbert | Carlin | 33.454s |
16 | Konstantin Tereschenko | Campos Racing | 37.493s |
17 | Sandy Stuvik | Status Grand Prix | 44.427s |
18 | Adderly Fong | Koiranen GP | 50.534s |
19 | Zaid Ashkanani | Campos Racing | 1m02.503s |
20 | Alex Bosak | Arden International | 1m13.910s |
- | Matheo Tuscher | Jenzer Motorsport | Retirement |
- | Matt Parry | Koiranen GP | Retirement |
- | Ralph Boschung | Jenzer Motorsport | Not started |
- | Kevin Ceccon | Arden International | Not started |
DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP:
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Luca Ghiotto | 196 |
2 | Esteban Ocon | 194 |
3 | Emil Bernstorff | 146 |
4 | Marvin Kirchhofer | 144 |
5 | Jimmy Eriksson | 85 |
6 | Kevin Ceccon | 77 |
7 | Antonio Fuoco | 62 |
8 | Jann Mardenborough | 52 |
9 | Matt Parry | 49 |
10 | Alex Palou | 30 |
11 | Ralph Boschung | 27 |
12 | Matheo Tuscher | 22 |
13 | Alfonso Celis | 19 |
14 | Oscar Tunjo | 17 |
15 | Alex Fontana | 16 |
16 | Artur Janosz | 11 |
17 | Sandy Stuvik | 7 |
18 | Seb Morris | 6 |
19 | Pal Varhaug | 4 |
20 | Alex Bosak | 4 |
21 | Mitch Gilbert | 1 |
22 | Adderly Fong | 0 |
23 | Zaid Ashkanani | 0 |
24 | Brandon Maisano | 0 |
25 | Amaury Bonduel | 0 |
26 | Michele Beretta | 0 |
27 | Beitske Visser | 0 |
28 | Konstantin Tereschenko | 0 |
29 | Samin Gomez | 0 |
30 | Christopher Hoher | 0 |
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