Bottas takes F3 Masters victory

The reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion made a good start from pole position and held off a determined challenge from fellow Finn Mika Maki (Signature) by blocking the inside at the first corner.

The leader's defensive tactics created a bottleneck in his wake and slow-starting Spaniard Roberto Merhi (Manor) was tagged from behind by Maki's team-mate Jean Karl Vernay.

As the pack shuffled, the front two escaped, with Bottas (ART) producing a blistering first lap to cross the line a full two seconds clear of his closest challenger.

The gap grew to nearly four seconds in the first third of the race, before Maki dug deep and began closing his countryman down.

His Dallara-Volkswagen closed to within 2.2s before Bottas stabilised the gap and drove on to a 2.610s victory - ART's sixth consecutive triumph in the Masters.

"It was a really tough race, maybe it looked easy but I was pushing so much," said the victor. "The key for the win was the good start and in the first three laps I was pushing so much to get a gap to Mika so I could control the race. It was difficult to maintain concentration, there was a lot of pressure, but I was able to keep myself calm and do what I needed to do."

Behind the lead pair, Stefano Coletti (Prema Powerteam), who also tripped over Merhi and Vernay in turn one, resisted race-long pressure from defending Master of F3 Jules Bianchi (ART) to claim third and become the first Monegasque to finish on the Masters podium.

Both took advantage of the confusion at Tarzan hairpin on the first lap to escape into their own fight. Bianchi, who took pole in qualifying, but was docked five places on the grid for weaving, gave game chase, but despite a couple of feints failed to find a way past and was forced to settle for a dejected fourth.

Merhi fell back after the first corner trouble and nursed a crippled Dallara to finish on the fringes of the top 10, while his aggressor Vernay held fourth initially but fell back gradually until he ended his race in the wall following contact with Dutchman Henkie Waldschmidt, which put both cars out.

Alexander Sims (Mucke) managed to find a way by the hobbled car of Vernay early on, but was already too far back to improve further and settled for a lonely fifth as top Briton.

Dutch home hero Renger van der Zande (Hitech) survived a wild early part of the race as Vernay bottled up the chasers, but completed a solid drive as the top British series runner to round out the top six after Vernay and Waldschmidt came together.

Pos  Driver                 Team       Time
 1.  Valtteri Bottas        ART        39m12.544s
 2.  Mika Maki              Signature  +   2.610s
 3.  Stefano Coletti        Prema      +  18.248s
 4.  Jules Bianchi          ART        +  18.749s
 5.  Alexander Sims         Mucke      +  28.736s
 6.  Renger van der Zande   Hitech     +  32.838s
 7.  Christian Vietoris     Mucke      +  33.678s
 8.  Sam Bird               Mucke      +  36.181s
 9.  Tiago Geronimi         Signature  +  45.353s
10.  Roberto Merhi          Manor      +  46.165s
11.  Matteo Chinosi         Prema      +  55.767s
12.  Basil Shaaban          Prema      +  56.282s
13.  Christopher Zanella    Motopark   +  56.460s
14.  Walter Grubmuller      Hitech     +  56.866s
15.  Laurens Vanthoor       Carlin     +1m00.630s
16.  Riki Christodoulou     Fortec     +1m03.061s
17.  Esteban Gutierrez      ART        +1m03.224s
18.  Carlos Huertas         Double R   +1m17.408s
19.  Daisuke Nakajima       Double R   +1m22.465s
20.  Pedro Nunes            Manor      +1m23.729s
21.  Daniel Zampieri        BVM        +1m24.976s
22.  Victor Garcia          Fortec     +1m25.128s
23.  Andrea Caldarelli      SG         +1m25.486s
24.  Max Chilton            Carlin     +1m25.783s
25.  Henry Arundel          Carlin     +1m26.801s
26.  Marco Wittmann         Mucke      +1m27.014s
27.  Alexandre Marsoin      SG         +1m27.691s
28.  Cesar Ramos            Manor      +1m28.235s
29.  Jake Rosenzweig        Carlin     +1m28.738s
30.  Francesco Castellacci  Manor      +1m29.552s
31.  Samuele Buttarelli     Carlin     +1m32.488s

Retirements:

     Adrien Tambay          ART         13 laps
     Jean-Karl Vernay       Signature    9 laps
     Henkie Waldschmidt     SG           9 laps
     Atte Mustonen          Motopark     9 laps
     Daniel Ricciardo       Carlin       0 laps