Felix da Costa scores incredible double GP3 victory at the Hungaroring

The Portuguese driver followed up his win from yesterday by giving Carlin its fourth international single-seater success of the weekend, after taking a perfectly-timed pitstop for slicks on a drying track.

Morning thunderstorms meant the track was wet at the start, but sunny conditions at start-time meant it was always going to dry throughout the 16-lap race. Most of the cars started on wets, but nine of those towards the rear of the field took a slick-tyre gamble right from the off.

The action started thick and fast for the MW Arden team, as Matias Laine beat pole-sitting team-mate David Fumanelli away from the line, while its third car of points leader Mitch Evans spun at Turn 1, having been clipped by Daniel Abt off the start and possibly suffering a punctured his left-rear tyre.

Fumanelli spun into the barrier out of second place exiting Turn 2, leaving Laine clear of Lotus duo Conor Daly and Aaro Vainio. Kevin Ceccon (Ocean) had been fourth, but local hero Tamas Pal Kiss overtook him for fourth place on lap two.

Da Costa ran seventh early on, but quickly passed Ceccon and Abt, and was running fifth when he pitted for slicks on the half-distance lap. This was in reaction to those who started on slicks setting faster laptimes, and with no more rain on the horizon, pitstops came thick and fast.

The leaders remained locked-into their wet-tyre strategy, however, with Laine repeatedly defending from Daly. Whenever the American challenged him, Laine simply pushed him wide and off the track. With three laps to go, Vainio passed Daly for second around the outside of Turn 1, and was poised to take a huge chunk out of Evans's points lead, as the Kiwi's early switch to slicks was hampered by a costly spin at the chicane. He finished 21st, but set fastest lap on the final tour.

As the race entered its closing laps, the slick-shod cars were lapping over 10s per lap faster than those on their well-hammered wets, and da Costa was the first of the slick runners on track. He carved his way past Abt, Daly, Vainio and Laine in quick succession, and pulled away to win by over 11s.

Patric Niederhauser pulled a forceful last-lap pass on Kiss for second with just a handful of corners remaining, a just reward for his gamble of starting on slicks. Alex Brundle was an excellent fourth, ahead of Tio Ellinas - both of whom started on slicks.

Lewis Williamson was a pitter, and finished sixth, ahead of wet-devotees Laine and Vainio, the latter taking just one point out of Evans's points lead when it could have been so much more.

Evans now leads on 136 points to Vainio's 118, with da Costa firmly in the frame on 102 with four races remaining.

Results - 16 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                Time/Gap
 1.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Carlin         30m36.220s
 2.  Patric Niederhauser     Jenzer          + 11.929s
 3.  Tamas Pal Kiss          Atech CRS       + 12.289s
 4.  Alex Brundle            Carlin          + 13.440s
 5.  Tio Ellinas             Manor           + 18.987s
 6.  Lewis Williamson        Status          + 19.505s
 7.  Matias Laine            MW Arden        + 21.609s
 8.  Aaro Vainio             Lotus           + 22.052s
 9.  Kevin Ceccon            Ocean           + 25.392s
10.  Conor Daly              Lotus           + 29.260s
11.  Daniel Abt              Lotus           + 37.146s
12.  Will Buller             Carlin          + 37.150s
13.  Marlon Stockinger       Status          + 38.616s
14.  Robert Cregan           Ocean           + 39.674s
15.  Alex Fontana            Jenzer          + 48.584s
16.  Dmitry Suranovich       Manor           + 50.483s
17.  Ethan Ringel            Atech CRS       + 59.255s
18.  Facu Regalia            Atech CRS     + 1m03.947s
19.  Vicky Piria             Trident       + 1m12.457s
20.  Alice Powell            Status        + 1m22.641s
21.  Mitch Evans             MW Arden      + 1m31.650s
22.  Robert Visoiu           Jenzer            + 1 lap


Retirements:

     Carmen Jorda            Ocean             13 laps
     Giovanni Venturini      Trident           12 laps
     David Fumanelli         MW Arden           0 laps