Mitch Evans wins GP3 season opener at Barcelona
Pre-season title favourite Mitch Evans kicked off his 2012 GP3 Series campaign with victory in round one at Barcelona
The MW Arden driver simply had to be patient in third until leaders Daniel Abt (Lotus) and Antonio Felix da Costa (Carlin) were penalised for jump-starts.
Once elevated into the lead, Evans was able to pull away from second-place Status driver Marlon Stockinger and win by 2.6 seconds despite a mid-race safety car to retrieve Kevin Ceccon's Ocean car, which had stopped on course.
Both polesitter da Costa and sixth-place starter Abt had rolled forward on the grid before the lights went out, but Abt then turned his issue into a brilliant getaway - surging through to second and then passing da Costa into Turn 1. Their drive-throughs dropped them outside the top 20, but they fought back to 13th and 14th, Abt still ahead.
In contrast to Abt and da Costa, front-row qualifier Conor Daly went backwards at the start, and was then overtaken in quick succession by Jenzer's Patric Niederhauser and MW Arden's Matias Laine.
Rookie Niederhauser went on to attack Daly's Lotus team-mate Aaro Vainio for third - briefly making it in front into the first corner before Vainio fought back at Turn 3 and reclaimed the final podium spot for good.
Niederhauser then had to fend of Laine and Daly, who were also caught by the flying Tio Ellinas. A penalty for a yellow flag infringement had dropped the Manor driver from sixth to 16th on the grid, but he recovered to seventh in the race.
Eighth and race two pole went to Robert Visoiu (Jenzer), while MW Arden's David Fumanelli and Carlin's Alex Brundle completed the top 10.
Results - 16 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Mitch Evans MW Arden 28m38.738s 2. Marlon Stockinger Status + 2.609s 3. Aaro Vainio Lotus + 4.594s 4. Patric Niederhauser Jenzer + 5.071s 5. Matias Laine MW Arden + 6.284s 6. Conor Daly Lotus + 6.941s 7. Tio Ellinas Manor + 7.419s 8. Robert Visoiu Jenzer + 10.102s 9. David Fumanelli MW Arden + 11.046s 10. Alex Brundle Carlin + 11.291s 11. Dmitry Suranovich Manor + 15.105s 12. Tamas Pal Kiss Atech CRS + 15.752s 13. Daniel Abt Lotus + 16.231s 14. Antonio Felix da Costa Carlin + 16.577s 15. Robert Cregan Ocean + 17.132s 16. Fabiano Machado Manor + 17.775s 17. Antonio Spavone Trident + 18.284s 18. Kotaro Sakurai Status + 19.087s 19. Jakub Klasterka Jenzer + 19.626s 20. Carmen Jorda Ocean + 22.224s 21. John Wartique Atech CRS + 23.070s 22. Vicky Piria Trident + 32.897s 23. William Buller Carlin + 46.346s Retirements: Kevin Ceccon Ocean 7 laps Ethan Ringel Atech CRS 0 laps Alice Powell Status 0 laps
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