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Wickens clinches bizarre Spa victory

Robert Wickens scored perhaps the most bizarre win of his career in a rain-struck opening GP3 race at Spa-Francorchamps this afternoon

The Canadian Status driver rode his luck but arguably played the rules to perfection after a heavy storm hit the track midway through the race.

When the field reached La Source nearly everybody spun, including leader Wickens, who hit the wall hard. But Wickens managed to get going and tiptoe round with a broken nose cone as the safety car came out to restore order.

Wickens then stayed out as everyone else bar Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (Manor) pitted for wets, and thus he retained the lead. That looked a bad call when it was announced that the safety car was coming in with four laps to go, as Wickens would get eaten alive on slicks on a flooded circuit.

But the race time limit was approaching, and Wickens managed to slow the field just enough to ensure that the clock wound down to zero before the pack reached the flag - thus ensuring he took the chequer in first.

A multi-car pile-up at the first corner had earlier ensured the first four laps were run behind the safety car - only two full racing laps were completed.

Pos  Driver                  Team          Time/Gap
 1.  Robert Wickens          Status      30m10.463s
 2.  Leonardo Cordeiro       MW Arden      + 0.395s
 3.  Pal Varhaug             Jenzer        + 0.482s
 4.  Roberto Merhi           Atech CRS     + 0.519s
 5.  Esteban Gutierrez       ART           + 3.957s
 6.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs     Manor         + 4.094s
 7.  Nico Muller             Jenzer        + 4.215s
 8.  Daniel Juncadella       Tech 1        + 4.957s
 9.  Dean Smith              Carlin        + 5.678s
10.  Pedro Nunes             ART           + 6.048s
11.  Simon Trummer           Jenzer        + 7.740s
12.  Miki Monras             MW Arden      + 8.639s
13.  Michael Christensen     MW Arden     + 10.282s
14.  Tobias Hegewald         RSC Mucke    + 10.932s
15.  Nigel Melker            RSC Mucke    + 11.293s
16.  Alexander Rossi         ART          + 24.286s
17.  Oliver Oakes            Atech CRS    + 30.799s
18.  Rio Haryanto            Manor      + 1m50.226s

Retirements:

     Antonio Felix da Costa  Carlin     6 laps
     Renger van der Zande    RSC Mucke  6 laps
     Ivan Lukashevich        Status     6 laps
     Felipe Guimaraes        Addax      5 laps
     Mirko Bortolotti        Addax      5 laps
     Stefano Coletti         Tech 1     1 lap
     Daniel Morad            Status     0 laps
     Josef Newgarden         Carlin     0 laps
     Vittorio Ghirelli       Atech CRS  0 laps
     Adrien Tambay           Manor      0 laps
     Pablo Sanchez Lopez     Addax      0 laps
     Doru Sechelariu         Tech 1     0 laps

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