Adrian Quaife-Hobbs takes maiden GP3 win in Valencia
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs scored his first GP3 points of the season by taking a comfortable victory on the streets of Valencia
The Manor driver made a rocket start from third on the grid to pass both front row cars of Lewis Williamson and Dean Smith within seconds of the lights going out.
From there he controlled the race with relative ease, managing the gap and gradually pulling away from his pursuers.
Smith took advantage of a poor start from polesitter Williamson to take second, which he held relatively comfortably until the final lap.
But his Addax car slowed dramatically at the end of the race, and by the time he crawled out of the final corner he had dropped to fifth.
Smith's problems gave Williamson second place, after he had been pushed hard by MW Arden team-mate Mitch Evans. The Kiwi gave him a particularly hard time in the middle of the race, before their scrap settled down towards the end.
Gabby Chaves (Addax) took advantage of Smith's woes to take fourth on the run to the flag, while Status' Alexander Sims starred on his way from 16th to sixth.
The Briton had been given a 10-place grid penalty for colliding with Chaves in qualifying, but he put in a determined charge to get back to the place he was originally meant to start from.
He was 11th by the end of the first lap, and had broken into the top eight by lap four. He then survived Tom Dillmann (Addax) riding up the back of his car as he passed the Frenchman, and set about hunting the ART duo of James Calado and Valtteri Bottas.
The pass on Calado for seventh was straightforward at Turn 2, but Bottas put up a serious fight. Sims eventually came out on top after all three had charged down the first of the long straights side-by-side on the penultimate lap.
Results - 14 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Manor 28m49.603s 2. Lewis Williamson MW Arden + 6.547s 3. Mitch Evans MW Arden + 7.406s 4. Gabby Chaves Addax + 11.403s 5. Dean Smith Addax + 14.315s 6. Alexander Sims Status + 17.022s 7. Valtteri Bottas ART + 18.818s 8. James Calado ART + 19.339s 9. Nick Yelloly Atech CRS + 26.837s 10. Leonardo Cordeiro Carlin + 28.342s 11. Zoel Amberg Atech CRS + 36.012s 12. Conor Daly Carlin + 37.231s 13. Vittorio Ghirelli Jenzer + 37.241s 14. Marlon Stockinger Atech CRS + 39.355s 15. Daniel Morad Carlin + 40.131s 16. Tamas Pal Kiss Tech 1 + 41.619s 17. Matias Laine Manor + 42.700s 18. Luciano Bacheta RSC Mucke + 48.068s 19. Rio Haryanto Manor + 58.934s 20. Tom Dillmann Addax + 1m12.164s Retirements: Nigel Melker RSC Mucke 8 laps Aaro Vainio Tech 1 3 laps Pedro Nunes ART 3 laps Nico Muller Jenzer 1 laps Michael Christensen RSC Mucke 1 laps Thomas Hylkema Tech 1 0 laps Ivan Lukashevich Status 0 laps Antonio Felix da Costa Status 0 laps Simon Trummer MW Arden 0 laps Maxim Zimin Jenzer 0 laps
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