GP3 Austria: Hughes beats Piquet to take first win of the season
Jake Hughes earned his first win of the GP3 season with victory at the Red Bull Ring, while the top three starters were wiped out on the first lap
Pedro Piquet finished second ahead of Leonardo Pulcini, while points leader and race one winner Callum Ilott finished sixth.
At Turn 1, polesitter David Beckmann was squeezed by then leader Ryan Tveter into Giuliano Alesi, and Tveter was spun around in front of them, eliminating the trio.
After the subsequent virtual safety car, Hughes - with a new chassis after breaking his previous one on the Turn 9 exit curbs on Saturday - built a lead of over a second to try to break the DRS tow to the pack behind.
But a string of fastest laps from Trident driver Piquet brought him back into play.
Piquet pulled off a DRS-assisted move at Turn 3 to squeeze past ART Grand Prix driver Hughes on lap 9 of 18, but after he got wheelspin on the Turn 2 exit curve three tours later, Hughes retook the lead.
Having used his six DRS, Piquet remained within a second of Hughes but couldn't retake the top spot.
Pulcini made it two podiums in the weekend with third.
The Campos Racing driver was rapid in the early running but he used all of his DRS too soon and was eventually was dropped by the leaders.
He was attacked by Ilott and then on the last lap by Dorian Boccolacci, but was assured in defence to seal his third-place spot.
Alessio Lorandi jumped two spots on the last lap to add fourth to his third place in race one.
Boccolacci passed Ilott on the penultimate lap, having saved up his DRS for the end of the race, and attacked Pulcini.
But it didn't pay off for Boccolacci as the opportunistic Lorandi used his botched attempt to leap up to fourth.
Boccolacci held off Ilott for fifth, while Ilott maintains the points' lead he seized with his Saturday win.
Hughes and Ilott's team-mate Nikita Mazepin recovered from a clash with the fourth ART driver Anthoine Hubert in race one to score seventh from 13th in race one, passing Niko Kari late on.
Hubert took ninth from 17th on the grid, while Joey Mawson rounded out the top 10 from last place at the start after a clutch issue ruled him out on the first lap on Saturday.
Series rookie Devlin DeFrancesco finished 11th in race two, despite starting down in 18th position.
Results - 18 laps
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake Hughes | ART Grand Prix | 25m23.065s | 18 |
| 2 | Pedro Piquet | Trident | 0.821s | 18 |
| 3 | Leonardo Pulcini | Campos Racing | 1.784s | 18 |
| 4 | Alessio Lorandi | Trident | 2.202s | 18 |
| 5 | Dorian Boccolacci | MP Motorsport | 2.914s | 18 |
| 6 | Callum Ilott | ART Grand Prix | 3.440s | 18 |
| 7 | Nikita Mazepin | ART Grand Prix | 5.061s | 18 |
| 8 | Niko Kari | MP Motorsport | 6.163s | 18 |
| 9 | Anthoine Hubert | ART Grand Prix | 6.634s | 18 |
| 10 | Joey Mawson | Arden International | 7.682s | 18 |
| 11 | Devlin Defrancesco | MP Motorsport | 9.034s | 18 |
| 12 | Tatiana Calderon | Jenzer Motorsport | 12.396s | 18 |
| 13 | Juan Manuel Correa | Jenzer Motorsport | 16.335s | 18 |
| 14 | Julien Falchero | Arden International | 16.942s | 18 |
| 15 | Simo Laaksonen | Campos Racing | 18.437s | 18 |
| 16 | Diego Menchaca | Campos Racing | 22.620s | 18 |
| - | Gabriel Aubry | Arden International | Retirement | 2 |
| - | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | Retirement | 0 |
| - | Ryan Tveter | Trident | Retirement | 0 |
| - | David Beckmann | Jenzer Motorsport | Retirement | 0 |
Drivers' championship
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Callum Ilott | 69 |
| 2 | Anthoine Hubert | 63 |
| 3 | Leonardo Pulcini | 61 |
| 4 | Nikita Mazepin | 51 |
| 5 | Giuliano Alesi | 50 |
| 6 | Pedro Piquet | 46 |
| 7 | Alessio Lorandi | 41 |
| 8 | Jake Hughes | 36 |
| 9 | Dorian Boccolacci | 27 |
| 10 | Joey Mawson | 16 |
| 11 | Juan Manuel Correa | 14 |
| 12 | David Beckmann | 12 |
| 13 | Ryan Tveter | 6 |
| 14 | Niko Kari | 5 |
| 15 | Simo Laaksonen | 3 |
| 16 | Diego Menchaca | 1 |
| 17 | Julien Falchero | 0 |
| 18 | Devlin Defrancesco | 0 |
| 19 | Tatiana Calderon | 0 |
| 20 | Christian Lundgaard | 0 |
| 21 | Gabriel Aubry | 0 |
| 22 | Will Palmer | 0 |
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