Lancaster takes maiden F3 victory

The Briton started behind Breen on the front row thanks to his seventh place in yesterday's race and beat the Irishman round the first corner.

He was able to control the race comfortably for the duration, despite a mid-race Safety Car period splitting the race in two.

"It's been a long time coming." said a relieved Lancaster after the race. "I had a podium at Pau and have been quick in testing, but I've not been able to put it together in in qualifying yet.

"That happened again this weekend so we've still got some work to do, but I managed to take some good points from two sensible races. I pushed quite hard from the start to get a second's lead and just had to make sure I didn't make a mistake from there."

Lancaster's ART Grand Prix teammate Jules Bianchi clinched his second podium finish of the weekend in third, with Nico Hulkenberg making it three ART cars in the top four as he reduced Edoardo Mortara's championship lead to a single point.

Hulkenberg made impressive progress through the top eight during the race after yesterday's win pushed him back to the fourth row for today's race.

He dived inside Kazuya Oshima for sixth place at the first corner on lap four and quickly chased down Prema's Stefano Coletti. He spent most of the race stuck behind Coletti but eventually squeezed ahead at Turn One on lap 19.

The first four cars were nearly three seconds up the road by this point, but Hulkenberg cruised up to the back of them and the pressure paid off as fourth place fell into his lap when Tom Dillman ran wide coming onto the back straight and Hulkenberg capitalised.

It was a near perfect weekend for Hulkenberg's championship challenge as Mortara's woe continued today.

The Italian had to start from the penultimate row after yesterday's retirement and was running in the pack when he was hit from behind by Dani Clos. The contact removed Mortara's rear wing and although he continued, he was well outside the points.

Mika Maki also gave away ground to Hulkenberg today. He started fifth today but Daniel Ricciardo, immediately ahead of him on the grid, stalled at the start. Maki tried to swerve round him but clipped the SG Formula car with his left rear wheel and retired on the spot with broken suspension.

The other title hopeful coming into this weekend, Renger van der Zande, also stalled at the start from fourth on the grid, and later retired from the race in the pits.

Pos Driver                  Team          Car           Gap
 1. Jon Lancaster           ART           D/M     40:40.779
 2. Niall Breen             Manor         D/M        +0.723
 3. Jules Bianchi           ART           D/M        +2.008
 4. Nico Hulkenberg         ART           D/M        +2.636
 5. Tom Dillmann            Jo Zeller     D/M        +3.514
 6. Yann Clairay            SG            D/M        +7.182
 7. Jean-Karl Vernay        Signature     D/V        +9.293
 8. Daniel Campos-Hull      HBR           D/M       +13.530
 9. Franck Mailleux         Signature     D/V       +15.341
10. Jens Klingmann          RC            D/V       +18.107
11. Koudai Tsukakoshi       Manor         D/M       +18.964
12. Erik Janis              Mucke         D/M       +19.975
13. Cheng Cong Fu           RC            D/V       +22.606
14. Brendon Hartley         RC            D/V       +24.021
15. Daniel Ricciardo        SG            D/M       +24.621
16. Robert Wickens          Signature     D/V       +25.049
17. Henkie Waldschmidt      SG            D/M       +25.393
18. Richard Philippe        Carlin        D/M       +26.084
19. Sam Bird                Manor         D/M       +26.833
20. Kazuya Oshima           Manor         D/M       +31.186
21. Martin Plowman          RC            D/V       +39.618
22. James Jakes             ART           D/M       +47.522
23. Edoardo Mortara         Signature     D/V       +55.432
24. Basil Shaaban           HBR           D/M       +2 laps
25. Rodolfo Gonzalez        Carlin        D/M       +2 laps

Retirements

    Stefano Coletti         Prema         D/M       20 laps
    Dani Clos               Prema         D/M       20 laps
    Christian Vietoris      Mucke         D/M       17 laps
    Renger van der Zande    Prema         D/M       14 laps
    Mika Maki               Mucke         D/M        0 laps
    

Fastest lap, Hulkenberg 1:24.654 on lap 6


D/M = Dallara Mercedes, D/V = Dallara Volkswagen