GP3 Sochi: Pulcini gets his first win, Mazepin boosts title hopes
Campos Racing's Leonardo Pulcini took a maiden GP3 Series victory in Sochi, as Racing Point Force India Formula 1 junior Nikita Mazepin cut the points deficit to leader Anthoine Hubert
Pulcini benefitted from pole position, which was awarded to him overnight when erstwhile polesitter Mazepin had his qualifying lap struck off for a track limits infringement.
The Italian converted a second pole in his GP3 career to victory, ending a recent barren run which included a gearbox problem in Monza and a broken radiator after his car ingested a visor tear-off at Spa.
Hubert had moved up to second by lap five, having despatched team-mate Callum Ilott earlier.
Mazepin had moved ahead of team-mate Ilott in the drivers' standings with the four points for pole, but that was lost with the qualifying-lap deletion that would then set-up an epic battle.
Mazepin had to fight through from eighth on the grid but was soon in the battle for the podium spots with Ilott and Alesi.
The key move came at quarter distance, when Mazepin attacked Ilott and took the position. Mazepin went off the track at the inside of Turn 2 during the move but the stewards decided no further action was necessary.
While Mazepin was off on the inside, Ilott ran wide on the outside and after that, he and Alesi began to fall down the order.
Mazepin showed real pace in the second half of the contest, reeling in Hubert to pass him on the last lap with DRS to cut the points gap to 24 with three races to go.
Behind Hubert, Richard Verschoor was a brilliant fourth in his third race weekend in GP3. The MP Motorsport driver started seventh and was brilliant under braking, allowing him to make passes and move forward.
He did leave the track at Turn 2 passing Jake Hughes for the fourth spot, but no further action was taken.
Fifth from 10th was successful for Hughes, while winner and poleman for the last two races, David Beckmann, was brilliant in turning 15th into fifth.
Hughes was passed by Simo Laaksonen late on. The latter hit Ryan Tveter at the start and briefly fell back before working his way back into the top six ahead of Hughes.
Joey Mawson takes the all important eighth place for the reversed-grid pole, with the Jenzers of Juan Manuel Correa and Tatiana Calderon rounding out the top 10.
Ilott fell to 13th, in a nightmare race which all but ends his chances of the championship. He now trails Hubert by 44 points.
Race result - 20 laps
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Leonardo Pulcini | Campos Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 38m56.960s |
2 | Nikita Mazepin | ART Grand Prix | Dallara/Mecachrome | 3.955s |
3 | Anthoine Hubert | ART Grand Prix | Dallara/Mecachrome | 7.037s |
4 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 8.314s |
5 | David Beckmann | Trident | Dallara/Mecachrome | 12.631s |
6 | Simo Laaksonen | Campos Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 13.442s |
7 | Jake Hughes | ART Grand Prix | Dallara/Mecachrome | 14.198s |
8 | Joey Mawson | Arden International | Dallara/Mecachrome | 24.084s |
9 | Juan Manuel Correa | Jenzer Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 25.503s |
10 | Tatiana Calderon | Jenzer Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 31.565s |
11 | Gabriel Aubry | Arden International | Dallara/Mecachrome | 31.973s |
12 | Jannes Fittje | Jenzer Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 33.156s |
13 | Callum Ilott | ART Grand Prix | Dallara/Mecachrome | 35.793s |
14 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | Dallara/Mecachrome | 36.222s |
15 | Pedro Piquet | Trident | Dallara/Mecachrome | 37.714s |
16 | Sacha Fenestraz | Arden International | Dallara/Mecachrome | 38.412s |
17 | Devlin Defrancesco | MP Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 39.357s |
18 | Ryan Tveter | Trident | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1 Lap |
- | Diego Menchaca | Campos Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | Retirement |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments