Silverstone GP3: Ferrari junior Antonio Fuoco battles to win
Ferrari protege Antonio Fuoco won a thrilling second GP3 race of the weekend at Silverstone, having run as low as eighth on the first lap
In slippery conditions, the Southern Italian picked his way through the order, his Trident car moving into the lead with just over two laps remaining when Alex Palou slid into the run-off at Stowe.
As it turned out, Palou's error on lap 11 turned out to be just a couple of corners before the official end of the race.
As the field completed the 12th lap, the leading runners went through before bungling officials waved the chequered flag at the lower orders.
The race has consequently been back-dated red-flag style to the end of the previous lap, meaning the action over the last two tours was in vain.
That cost Charles Leclerc, who stormed into contention for victory straight away from the fourth row, but looked a little tentative regarding risky passing moves in the conditions.
Leclerc enjoyed a close battle with Fuoco while simultaneously putting the pressure on Palou, which ended when Fuoco repaid Leclerc's Saturday move around the outside of Stowe with a magnificent pass.
Leclerc lost third position to ART team-mate Nyck de Vries on the 12th lap, but then both managed to get past the Campos Racing machine of Palou on the 13th.
De Vries finished second from Leclerc on the road, but was carrying a five-second penalty for a collision with Ralph Boschung, which should have promoted Leclerc to second.
But the back-dated result restores Palou to second, from Leclerc.
A mighty charge from Santino Ferrucci from the back of the grid gave the DAMS driver fourth place.
He just held off Jack Aitken, who was also very rapid in the closing laps, but the chequered-flag gaffe means Aitken takes sixth in the results behind Steijn Schothorst.
Seventh goes to Nirei Fukuzumi from the penalised de Vries, with Boschung dropping down from what would have been fifth to outside the points owing to a 10s penalty for a clash with Jake Dennis.
That came just after the end of the second of two safety-car periods. Dennis was turned around at Village at a point when he was just behind Fuoco and the Briton was classified ninth, ahead of early leader Sandy Stuvik.
Matt Parry was another out of luck. He was running second to Palou when he was given a black-and-orange flag for a loose front wing after contact with poleman Arjun Maini on the first lap, the incident giving Maini a puncture.
Meanwhile, Saturday winner Alexander Albon made an early pitstop and was classified 14th.
RESULTS - 11 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Antonio Fuoco | Trident | 27m55.438s |
2 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 0.459s |
3 | Charles Leclerc | ART Grand Prix | 0.583s |
4 | Santino Ferrucci | DAMS | 3.695s |
5 | Steijn Schothorst | Campos Racing | 5.060s |
6 | Jack Aitken | Arden International | 5.626s |
7 | Nirei Fukuzumi | ART Grand Prix | 6.344s |
8 | Nyck de Vries | ART Grand Prix | 6.370s |
9 | Jake Dennis | Arden International | 7.733s |
10 | Sandy Stuvik | Trident | 9.914s |
11 | Kevin Jorg | DAMS | 10.890s |
12 | Ralph Boschung | Koiranen GP | 12.091s |
13 | Konstantin Tereschenko | Campos Racing | 24.918s |
14 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 35.466s |
15 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 46.637s |
16 | Matt Parry | Koiranen GP | 50.407s |
17 | Jake Hughes | DAMS | 51.960s |
18 | Matevos Isaakyan | Koiranen GP | 55.404s |
19 | Arjun Maini | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m16.796s |
20 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden International | 1 Lap |
- | Akash Nandy | Jenzer Motorsport | Retirement |
- | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | Retirement |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Charles Leclerc | 86 |
2 | Alexander Albon | 84 |
3 | Antonio Fuoco | 72 |
4 | Nyck de Vries | 42 |
5 | Ralph Boschung | 38 |
6 | Jake Hughes | 31 |
7 | Nirei Fukuzumi | 23 |
8 | Matt Parry | 22 |
9 | Oscar Tunjo | 18 |
10 | Jake Dennis | 16 |
11 | Alex Palou | 13 |
12 | Jack Aitken | 12 |
13 | Kevin Jorg | 12 |
14 | Santino Ferrucci | 8 |
15 | Sandy Stuvik | 8 |
16 | Steijn Schothorst | 6 |
17 | Matevos Isaakyan | 4 |
18 | Arjun Maini | 4 |
19 | Artur Janosz | 2 |
20 | Akash Nandy | 0 |
21 | Konstantin Tereschenko | 0 |
22 | Richard Gonda | 0 |
23 | Tatiana Calderon | 0 |
24 | Giuliano Alesi | 0 |
25 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | 0 |
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