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Silverstone GP3: Alexander Albon holds off charging Charles Leclerc

Alexander Albon became the first man to beat Charles Leclerc in a GP3 Series Saturday race by taking victory at Silverstone

The Anglo-Thai converted his pole position into a lights-to-flag win, while the sister ART Grand Prix machine of Leclerc was hauled through from a grid-penalised seventh to second.

Front-row man Sandy Stuvik managed to hold onto second place for almost eight laps, before Trident team-mate Antonio Fuoco got past into Club, and then Leclerc and Jake Hughes also quickly passed the fading Stuvik.

Leclerc moved up on Fuoco, and pulled off a breathtaking move around the outside of Stowe on the 10th lap of 20 - Fuoco forced his fellow Ferrari junior as wide as he dared and there may have been slight wheel-to-wheel contact, before Leclerc benefited from the inside line into Club.

Leclerc was 4.3 seconds adrift of Albon by this stage and, although he reduced that to 2.8s within two laps, Albon managed to stabilise it.

Another late charge from the Monegasque failed to make enough inroads, and Albon crossed the line 1.6s in front.

Hughes moved up to challenge Fuoco, but bad luck struck the DAMS driver when the upper plane of his rear wing worked loose.

He was shown the black-and-orange flag requiring him to pit, but instead of rejoining he called it a day.

That promoted Matt Parry to fourth, the Welshman battling his way through from outside the top 10 with a series of passing moves in his Koiranen GP car.

By the end of the race he had a challenge from ART's Nyck de Vries, who had been delayed on his climb from the back of the grid when he collided with team-mate Nirei Fukuzumi at Brooklands, but swiftly resumed his surge.

De Vries finished just behind Parry, and a five-second penalty for the McLaren junior for the clash with Fukuzumi made no difference to his final position.

Stuvik plummeted from sixth to ninth over the last couple of laps, with Ralph Boschung taking sixth from Artur Janosz (another to climb from the back of the grid) and Jake Dennis, who bravely passed Stuvik at Becketts for eighth - and provisional reversed-grid pole - on the final lap.

But five-second time penalties for track-limits offences put Janosz and Dennis down to ninth and 12th respectively.

Second-row starter Arjun Maini faded dramatically in the early laps on his GP3 debut, but settled down and made up places once more to claim 10th on the road from Alex Palou.

Maini moves up to eighth on corrected times and takes pole for Sunday's race.

Isaakyan was another shown the black-and-orange flag, in his case for a loose mirror, dropping him out of fifth place.

RESULTS - 20 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Gap
1 Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 37m53.666s
2 Charles Leclerc ART Grand Prix 1.647s
3 Antonio Fuoco Trident 12.239s
4 Matt Parry Koiranen GP 19.583s
5 Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix 25.000s
6 Ralph Boschung Koiranen GP 29.094s
7 Sandy Stuvik Trident 33.337s
8 Arjun Maini Jenzer Motorsport 34.157s
9 Artur Janosz Trident 35.434s
10 Alex Palou Campos Racing 36.256s
11 Nirei Fukuzumi ART Grand Prix 36.476s
12 Jake Dennis Arden International 36.696s
13 Jack Aitken Arden International 36.852s
14 Steijn Schothorst Campos Racing 37.040s
15 Kevin Jorg DAMS 38.077s
16 Giuliano Alesi Trident 38.851s
17 Tatiana Calderon Arden International 39.607s
18 Santino Ferrucci DAMS 42.932s
19 Akash Nandy Jenzer Motorsport 43.180s
20 Konstantin Tereschenko Campos Racing 50.729s
21 Matevos Isaakyan Koiranen GP 51.679s
- Jake Hughes DAMS Retirement

RACE TWO STARTING GRID

Pos Driver Team
1 Arjun Maini Jenzer Motorsport
2 Sandy Stuvik Trident
3 Ralph Boschung Koiranen GP
4 Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix
5 Matt Parry Koiranen GP
6 Antonio Fuoco Trident
7 Charles Leclerc ART Grand Prix
8 Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix
9 Artur Janosz Trident
10 Alex Palou Campos Racing
11 Nirei Fukuzumi ART Grand Prix
12 Jake Dennis Arden International
13 Jack Aitken Arden International
14 Steijn Schothorst Campos Racing
15 Kevin Jorg DAMS
16 Giuliano Alesi Trident
17 Tatiana Calderon Arden International
18 Santino Ferrucci DAMS
19 Akash Nandy Jenzer Motorsport
20 Konstantin Tereschenko Campos Racing
21 Matevos Isaakyan Koiranen GP
22 Jake Hughes DAMS

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