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Gutierrez dominates in Istanbul

ART's Esteban Gutierrez was in a class apart in the first of this weekend's GP3 races at Istanbul Park, although the Mexican's win remains provisional due to an investigation into a possible jump-start

Gutierrez capitalised on slow-starting polesitter Nigel Melker to lead into the first corner and he extended his lead with every lap, eventually crossing the line 10.5s clear of closest rival James Jakes of Manor Racing.

Addax's Felipe Guimaraes had a fairly sedate drive to third, while ART's Alexander Rossi's fourth owed a lot to a nice move up the inside of Daniel Morad at Turn 2.

As was the case in Barcelona earlier in the month, it was a tough afternoon for some of the star qualifiers. Melker made an awful start and fell almost to the back of the field, the Mucke driver's misery being compounded by a drive-through penalty for starting out of position.

Second-row starter Dean Smith also made a poor getaway, but looked like he had recovered most of the lost ground with a strong final phase of the race, only to drop back through the field with a problem on the final lap. That left Morad, Jenzer's Nico Muller, Arden's Miki Monras and Manor's Rio Haryanto to complete the points.

The race was sprinkled with a few incidents, one of which accounted for Mucke's Renger van der Zande, who had worked his way up to 15th from the back of the grid before being involved in a clash with Mikael Aleshin. The latter was able to continue, only to be eliminated in a later shunt with Stefano Coletti.

Pos  Driver                Team          Time/Gap
 1.  Esteban Gutierrez     ART         26m56.811s
 2.  James Jakes           Manor        + 10.513s
 3.  Felipe Guimaraes      Addax        + 16.321s
 4.  Alexander Rossi       ART          + 19.423s
 5.  Daniel Morad          Status       + 22.02 s
 6.  Nico Muller           Jenzer       + 25.416s
 7.  Miki Monras           MW Arden     + 25.586s
 8.  Rio Haryanto          Manor        + 26.615s
 9.  Doru Sechelariu       Tech 1       + 28.042s
10.  Josef Newgarden       Carlin       + 29.953s
11.  Robert Wickens        Status       + 37.592s
12.  Oliver Oakes          Atech CRS    + 39.103s
13.  Michael Christensen   MW Arden     + 41.188s
14.  Patrick Reiterer      Atech CRS    + 48.641s
15.  Pal Varhaug           Jenzer       + 49.132s
16.  Tobias Hegewald       RSC Mucke    + 49.441s
17.  Vittorio Ghirelli     Atech CRS    + 49.765s
18.  Leornardo Cordeiro    MW Arden     + 53.262s
19.  Ivan Lukashevich      Status       + 56.154s
20.  Simon Trummer         Jenzer     + 1m08.306s
21.  Pablo Sanchez Lopez   Addax      + 1m12.048s
22.  Dean Smith            Carlin         + 1 lap
23.  Nigel Melker          RSC Mucke      + 1 lap
24.  Stefano Coletti       Tech 1        + 2 laps
25.  Mirko Bortolotti      Addax         + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Mikhail Aleshin       Carlin     12 laps
     Renger van der Zande  RSC Mucke  9 laps
     Jim Pla               Tech 1     2 laps
     Pedro Nunes           ART        2 laps
     Adrian Quaife-Hobbs   Manor      0 laps

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