Spa GP3: Luca Ghiotto beats Esteban Ocon to race two win
Championship leader Luca Ghiotto claimed his third GP3 win of the season in a safety car interrupted race two at Spa
Trident driver Ghiotto, who started fourth on the grid, lost out to title rival Esteban Ocon at the start as the Mercedes protege swiftly made it up to second from seventh.
But Ghiotto made steady progress thereafter. He passed Ocon's ART Grand Prix team-mate Alfonso Celis Jr following the safety car restart after a huge incident involving Alex Bosak.
Polesitter Bosak suffered a similar tyre blowout to the one Mercedes Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg suffered in free practice two.
As he was coming round Blanchimont his tyre appeared to blister and burst, sending him into the tyre wall.
On impact a loose tyre bounced onto the track and hit the helpless Matt Parry's car, ending his race.
Ghiotto was closing in on Ocon after passing Celis but would have to wait until the next safety car restart to make the move stick.
This time the safety car was deployed for an incident between Ferrari protege Antonio Fuoco and ART driver Marvin Kirchhofer.
The pair were fighting over fifth when they made contact into Les Combes. The collision caused Fuoco to spin across the track where he collided with Kirchhofer again and Artur Janosz.
On the restart Ghiotto was instantly hassling Ocon and passed him down the Kemmel straight, before repeating the move again on Campos Racing driver Alex Palou the following lap for the lead.
Ocon followed his title rival past Palou soon after for second on the outside of Les Combes, and Celis also passed the Spaniard late on to take his maiden podium.
Palou's fall down the order to fifth was complete when Matheo Tuscher, who had contact with his Jenzer Motorsport team-mate Ralph Boschung at the Bus Stop chicane earlier in the race, took fourth in the closing stages.
Status Grand Prix driver Alex Fontana drove a clean race ahead of Janosz and Boschung, who collided at the Bus Stop chicane.
Koiranen GP's Adderly Fong briefly capitalised on this before falling back to ninth, Pal Varhaug rounded out the top 10.
Race one winner Emil Bernstorff failed to repeat his success after breaking his suspension in a collision at La Source, forcing him to retire.
RESULTS - 13 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 33m36.220s |
2 | Esteban Ocon | ART Grand Prix | 0.878s |
3 | Alfonso Celis | ART Grand Prix | 5.144s |
4 | Matheo Tuscher | Jenzer Motorsport | 6.891s |
5 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 7.993s |
6 | Alex Fontana | Status Grand Prix | 8.348s |
7 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 9.119s |
8 | Ralph Boschung | Jenzer Motorsport | 11.014s |
9 | Adderly Fong | Koiranen GP | 11.611s |
10 | Pal Varhaug | Jenzer Motorsport | 12.230s |
11 | Mitch Gilbert | Carlin | 14.113s |
12 | Jann Mardenborough | Carlin | 14.357s |
13 | Kevin Ceccon | Arden International | 14.506s |
14 | Seb Morris | Status Grand Prix | 14.900s |
15 | Beitske Visser | Trident | 15.131s |
16 | Jimmy Eriksson | Koiranen GP | 16.008s |
17 | Sandy Stuvik | Status Grand Prix | 18.795s |
18 | Zaid Ashkanani | Campos Racing | 32.579s |
- | Marvin Kirchhofer | ART Grand Prix | Retirement |
- | Antonio Fuoco | Carlin | Retirement |
- | Alex Bosak | Arden International | Retirement |
- | Matt Parry | Koiranen GP | Retirement |
- | Emil Bernstorff | Arden International | Retirement |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Luca Ghiotto | 154 |
2 | Esteban Ocon | 126 |
3 | Marvin Kirchhofer | 113 |
4 | Emil Bernstorff | 100 |
5 | Kevin Ceccon | 54 |
6 | Jimmy Eriksson | 50 |
7 | Antonio Fuoco | 46 |
8 | Matt Parry | 43 |
9 | Jann Mardenborough | 32 |
10 | Ralph Boschung | 23 |
11 | Alfonso Celis | 19 |
12 | Oscar Tunjo | 17 |
13 | Alex Palou | 12 |
14 | Alex Fontana | 12 |
15 | Matheo Tuscher | 10 |
16 | Seb Morris | 6 |
17 | Sandy Stuvik | 6 |
18 | Artur Janosz | 4 |
19 | Pal Varhaug | 4 |
20 | Alex Bosak | 4 |
21 | Adderly Fong | 0 |
22 | Mitch Gilbert | 0 |
23 | Zaid Ashkanani | 0 |
24 | Beitske Visser | 0 |
25 | Samin Gomez | 0 |
26 | Christopher Hoher | 0 |
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