Muller wins eventful Valencia race
Jenzer Motorsport's Nico Muller won an eventful GP3 Series sprint race in Valencia on Sunday morning
The Swiss driver beat polesitter James Jakes off the line to lead into the first corner and was never troubled thereafter, eventually winning by 3.2s.
But it could have been a different story had the race been a few laps longer, as Atech's Roberto Merhi, who moved into second midway through the race, had reeled off a string of fastest laps to reduce what had been a leading margin of nearly six seconds.
Jakes, meanwhile, initially fell to third at the start when he went to the outside at turn one and allowed Rio Haryanto past, but reclaimed the spot from the Indonesian a few laps later - only to lose it again to Merhi.
Haryanto held on to fourth, but the scrap for the final points places was chaotic.
Points leader Esteban Gutierrez was removed from contention early on when he was hit from behind by Robert Wickens, the Canadian receiving a drive-through penalty that also cost him a likely points finish. Wickens was later involved in another incident with Status team-mate Ivan Lukashevich which was due to be looked at by the stewards after the race.
That left Tobias Hegewald and Stefano Coletti in the points, but a scrap between the pair ended with Hegewald in the barriers and Coletti losing fifth to Adrian Quaife-Hobbs.
Coletti then had to deal with a recovering Gutierrez for the final laps, but managed to hold the Mexican off to secure the final point.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Nico Muller Jenzer 28m01.567s
2. Roberto Merhi Atech CRS + 3.208s
3. James Jakes Manor + 6.641s
4. Rio Haryanto Manor + 15.423s
5. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Manor + 17.054s
6. Stefano Coletti Tech 1 + 18.172s
7. Esteban Gutierrez ART + 18.779s
8. Pal Varhaug Jenzer + 24.997s
9. Pablo Sanchez Lopez Addax + 26.149s
10. Mirko Bortolotti Addax + 29.817s
11. Pedro Nunes ART + 31.100s
12. Daniel Morad Status + 31.455s
13. Miki Monras MW Arden + 31.598s
14. Michael Christensen MW Arden + 35.706s
15. Nigel Melker RSC Mucke + 37.647s
16. Robert Wickens Status + 39.002s
17. Jean-Eric Vergne Tech 1 + 39.118s
18. Felipe Guimaraes Addax + 41.936s
19. Oliver Oakes Atech CRS + 45.869s
20. Doru Sechelariu Tech 1 + 46.030s
21. Leonardo Cordeiro MW Arden + 47.519s
22. Vittorio Ghirelli Atech CRS + 48.557s
23. Dean Smith Carlin + 54.615s
24. Renger van der Zande RSC Mucke + 1m06.160s
25. Ivan Lukashevich Status + 1m06.493s
26. Josef Newgarden Carlin + 1m14.601s
27. Simon Trummer Jenzer + 1 laps
28. Lucas Foresti Carlin + 1 laps
29. Tobias Hegewald RSC Mucke + 2 laps
Retirements:
Alexander Rossi ART 3 laps
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