Aaro Vainio controls first Monaco GP3 race for Lotus

The Finn, driving for the ART-run Lotus GP team, converted his maiden pole position into the lead at the start. He extended his margin over Atech CRS driver Tamas Pal Kiss, who jumped front-row starter Kevin Ceccon (Ocean) off the grid, to 3.6 seconds by the end of lap six and looked on course for a comfortable victory.

Kiss then mounted an attack, reeling off several fastest laps to close the gap to under two-and-a-half seconds by the end of lap 10. But that was as close as he got during this mid-race pursuit and Vainio was able to close out his win comfortably, easing off markedly on the final lap and winning by 1.9s.

It was a typically processional Monaco race, with the top 13 not changing between the end of the first and the final laps. Ceccon, who set fastest lap on the final tour, had a lonely run to third ahead of David Fumanelli, who had to resist the advances of MW Arden team-mate Mitch Evans in the early stages.

Lotus driver Daniel Abt finished sixth despite pressure from Antonio Felix da Costa (Carlin), while behind them Marlon Stockinger bagged pole position for Saturday's reversed grid race by finishing eighth in his Status entry.

Alex Brundle, son of 1994 Monaco Grand Prix runner-up Martin, finished 10th for Carlin, while Conor Daly (Lotus), a winner on the opening weekend of the GP3 season, was classified 23rd after a jump-start penalty compounded a disastrous getaway that had already left him near the back at the end of the opening lap.

Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team          Time/Gap
 1.  Aaro Vainio             Lotus       27m06.685s
 2.  Tamas Pal Kiss          Atech CRS     + 1.994s
 3.  Kevin Ceccon            Ocean        + 10.519s
 4.  David Fumanelli         MW Arden     + 16.156s
 5.  Mitch Evans             MW Arden     + 17.789s
 6.  Daniel Abt              Lotus        + 18.169s
 7.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Carlin       + 18.548s
 8.  Marlon Stockinger       Status       + 20.440s
 9.  Tio Ellinas             Manor        + 20.733s
10.  Alex Brundle            Carlin       + 25.083s
11.  Alice Powell            Status       + 26.084s
12.  Will Buller             Carlin       + 29.591s
13.  Kotaro Sakurai          Status       + 31.319s
14.  Robert Visoiu           Jenzer       + 31.612s
15.  Fabiano Machado         Manor        + 34.249s
16.  Dimitry Suranovich      Manor        + 34.851s
17.  John Wartique           Atech CRS    + 47.648s
18.  Robert Cregan           Ocean        + 57.033s
19.  Vicky Piria             Trident      + 59.726s
20.  Antonio Spavone         Trident    + 1m00.765s
21.  Matias Laine            MW Arden   + 1m02.454s
22.  Jakub Klasterka         Jenzer     + 1m03.565s

Retirements:

     Conor Daly              Lotus          17 laps
     Patric Niederhauser     Jenzer          8 laps
     Ethan Ringel            Atech CRS       8 laps
     Carmen Jorda            Ocean           5 laps