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Valtteri Bottas increases GP3 points lead with Spa victory

Valtteri Bottas extended his GP3 championship lead with a dominant victory in wet conditions at Spa

The ART driver grabbed the lead from his team-mate James Calado by out-dragging him away from the start. Calado then had a look to the inside, but Bottas left just enough room to avoid contact and hold the advantage.

From there, he pulled away at an incredible rate. His lead was four seconds after two laps, 6.5s after five and up to 9.5s by lap eight. From there, he backed off and cruised to victory.

Calado had a lonely race to second, while the battle for third provided plenty of action in the early laps. RSC Mucke driver Nigel Melker had to pass Manor's Adrian Quaife-Hobbs three times for the position, and on the first two times he made his move around the outside at the fearsome Blanchimont corner.

Quaife-Hobbs was faster on the run out of Eau Rouge though, and he twice took the place back on the long back straight. Melker then caught him by surprise with a lunge into Stavelot that proved to be the deciding moment in their scrap.

Behind them, Conor Daly resisted several laps of pressure from a charging Alexander Sims. The Status driver had climbed from 17th to seventh on the opening lap, and then picked off Tom Dillmann (Addax) in the early stages.

Daly kept him at bay for four laps, before the Status Grand Prix driver suffered a high-speed 360-degree spin as he looked to the inside at Blanchimont. Sims held his place initially, but he soon fell down the order before retiring on the penultimate lap.

The main beneficiary of his misfortune was series debutant Richie Stanaway, who took the final point - and therefore pole position for race two - in the third ART entry.

Results - 12 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team          Time/Gap
 1.  Valtteri Bottas         ART         31m02.902s
 2.  James Calado            ART           + 6.495s
 3.  Nigel Melker            RSC Mucke    + 13.979s
 4.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs     Manor        + 21.117s
 5.  Conor Daly              Carlin       + 24.915s
 6.  Tom Dillmann            Addax        + 34.338s
 7.  Nico Muller             Jenzer       + 40.898s
 8.  Richie Stanaway         ART          + 43.583s
 9.  Lewis Williamson        MW Arden     + 45.330s
10.  Ivan Lukashevich        Status       + 50.869s
11.  Mitch Evans             MW Arden     + 51.538s
12.  Rio Haryanto            Manor        + 53.789s
13.  Aaro Vainio             Tech 1     + 1m01.520s
14.  Alex Fontana            Jenzer     + 1m05.130s
15.  Michael Christensen     RSC Mucke  + 1m06.596s
16.  Gabby Chaves            Addax      + 1m09.195s
17.  Tamas Pal Kiss          Tech 1     + 1m13.548s
18.  Matias Laine            Manor      + 1m14.024s
19.  Simon Trummer           MW Arden   + 1m14.988s
20.  Dean Smith              Addax      + 1m20.817s
21.  Leonardo Cordeiro       Carlin     + 1m27.518s
22.  Thomas Hylkema          Tech 1     + 1m49.087s

Retirements:

     Alexander Sims          Status          9 laps
     Maxim Zimin             Jenzer          9 laps
     Marlon Stockinger       Atech CRS       6 laps
     Daniel Mancinelli       RSC Mucke       3 laps
     Antonio Felix da Costa  Status          1 laps
     Callum MacLeod          Carlin          1 laps
     Nick Yelloly            Atech CRS       0 laps
     Zoel Amberg             Atech CRS       0 laps

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