Mortara 'honoured' to make history

The Italian overcame a tough challenge from his Signature team-mates Daniel Abt and Laurens Vanthoor in the blue-riband F3 race to take a well-earned victory - having dropped down to third place at one point.

And 12 months on from a triumph in Macau that helped relaunch his career after a troubled GP2 campaign, Mortara is delighted with his achievement.

"It's a great feeling and a great honour for me to be in the history books," said Mortara, who saw Abt crash out of the lead before he overtook Vanthoor at the subsequent safety car restart. "But all I have done is win this grand prix twice.

"We don't have to forget that every year, it's a tough competition. This year it was a big fight too. I had a tough challenge today, and the previous days, from Valtteri [Bottas] and Laurens. We were pushing really hard and I was really pushing hard. It was really tough for me."

Having been swamped at the safety car restart following a start-line accident, Mortara knew the key to winning was in breaking clear at the front after he overtook Vanthoor.

"I have pretty big experience here, and on the straight if you don't have a big, big gap with the people who are behind you, there's a strong chance they are going to get past you," he explained.

"I thought I had done enough but unfortunately that wasn't the case and they just overtook me at the end of the straight. It was the same for Laurens.

"He was in front, he did a great restart at the beginning and then he was also in that position and I could overtake him.

"Then it was a matter really to push as hard as you can, even more than in qualifying, to build a gap so it is more difficult for the people who are following you. That is what I did today. I pushed and in every corner I almost touched the walls - but I managed it."