Mitch Evans vows to regain GP3 lead as Alexander Sims takes over

Status GP racer Sims, a former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner, took the points lead with second and third placed finishes at Silverstone, while Evans (MW Arden) failed to register in either of the races.

Evans finished 10th in race one, like Sims being forced to miss the start while switching from slicks to wets, and then suffered a throttle failure in race two.

"The engine just cut-out on me coming out of Luffield," said Evans. "It said there was a throttle error on the dash, and that was it. I made a great start to move up to fifth, got ahead of Sims, and could see that I was edging away from the cars behind.

"I'm gutted, but although I've lost the points lead at the halfway point, the title race remains wide open. We'll move on and bounce back at the Nurburgring. I'm feeling good and confident, and it seems everyone has had one bad weekend now."

Sims, who leads the title race by three points, said he would continue his attacking form as the season enters its second half but remains concerned about his qualifying speed.

"I'm going to keep going for wins on Saturdays and see how it ends up," he said. "We've got to get our qualifying form sorted, that's still our weak point. Our race pace is very strong though, so if we qualify well we should be able to stay up there."