Grubmuller secures first F3 win

All drivers started the race with slicks on a damp, but drying circuit, and those starting in the even grid positions off-line all struggled to get away properly at the lights.

Grubmuller (Hitech) led away, with yesterday's winner Marcus Ericsson (Double R) vaulting up to second from fifth on the grid.

The Swede felt he had the pace to win the race, but failed to adapt fast enough to the drying track and fell behind Grubmuller's team-mate Renger van der Zande on lap six. Further troubles dropped him to as low as seventh, but he recovered to a respectable fourth.

Once into second, van der Zande drove a defensive race to suppress the rest and allow Grubmuller to lead the field home at a fairly comfortable distance.

The Dutchman completed Hitech's first ever one-two finish by clinging on to second. His lack of speed as the track dried bottled up those behind and some kind of incident looked inevitable.

That incident came on lap 12 when a collision at the Turn 3 hairpin between championship leader Daniel Ricciardo (Carlin), team-mate Max Chilton (running third) and Wayne Boyd (T-Sport), forced Chilton to pit, sent Boyd into retirement and dropped Ricciardo back to eighth.

Formula 2 championship leader Robert Wickens (Carlin), who started 15th, then found himself best of the rest, with Nick Tandy (JTR) storming through the chaos after a poor start to leap to fourth. But Tandy spun at Mercedes Curve with three laps to run and fell back to eighth. He set fastest lap and recovered to sixth by passing both Adriano Buzaid (T-Sport) and Ricciardo in the stadium section on the final tour.

Riki Christodoulou (Fortec) was another to suffer a poor start, but avoided incident to complete a stealthy climb to fifth.

His team-mate Daniel McKenzie won the national class comfortably and drove with composure to finish 10th overall.

Pos  Driver                Team             Car  Time
 1.  Walter Grubmuller     Hitech           D/M  30m05.203s
 2.  Renger van der Zande  Hitech           D/M  +   1.039s
 3.  Robert Wickens        Carlin           D/V  +   1.448s
 4.  Marcus Ericsson       Double R         D/M  +   1.837s
 5.  Riki Christodoulou    Fortec           D/M  +   8.775s
 6.  Nick Tandy            JTR              M/M  +  13.081s
 7.  Adriano Buzaid        T-Sport          D/V  +  14.244s
 8.  Daniel Ricciardo      Carlin           D/V  +  14.546s
 9.  Henry Arundel         Carlin           D/V  +  15.482s
10.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec           D/H  +  17.281s
11.  Daisuke Nakajima      Double R         D/M  +  25.542s
12.  Stephane Richelmi     Barazil Epsilon  D/M  +  34.618s
13.  Victor Garcia         Fortec           D/M  +  35.374s
14.  Carlos Huertas        Double R         D/M  +  35.892s
15.  Gabriel Dias          T-Sport          D/H  +1m02.180s
16.  Max Chilton           Carlin           D/V  +    1 lap
17.  Victor Correa         Litespeed        S/H  +    1 lap

Retirements:

     Wayne Boyd            T-Sport          D/V   12 laps
     Hywel Lloyd           CF               D/H    9 laps
     Jay Bridger           Litespeed        M/H    4 laps