Antonio Felix da Costa beats title rivals Mitch Evans and Aaro Vainio to Silverstone GP3 victory

The Carlin driver defeated title protagonists Mitch Evans and Aaro Vainio (Lotus) in a straight fight with a stunning performance. MW Arden's Evans converted pole into the early lead, but a great move around the outside of the third corner, Village, took da Costa into first place - a position he held to the finish.

On a track that initially featured a dry racing line but was very damp off it, the top three simply streaked away from the chasing pack in the opening stages, lapping as much as two seconds a lap quicker than the rest.

All three traded fastest laps, but da Costa was faultless, and gradually eked out a comfortable lead. Behind them Lotus's Daniel Abt had a quiet run to fourth. The same could not be said of his team-mate Conor Daly, who had to charge his way back up the order after a grid demotion and a very tardy getaway.

He was almost able to match da Costa's pace by the time he had fought his way past Kevin Ceccon, Alex Brundle and Tio Ellinas, but by then he was well behind the top four.

The fast-starting Ellinas held on to sixth for Manor, while Brundle took a season's best seventh for Carlin. Ceccon took eighth for Ocean and pole for Sunday's reversed-grid sprint race.

Results - 14 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team          Time/Gap
 1.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Carlin      27m14.410s
 2.  Mitch Evans             MW Arden      + 7.062s
 3.  Aaro Vainio             Lotus         + 8.783s
 4.  Daniel Abt              Lotus        + 16.136s
 5.  Conor Daly              Lotus        + 22.156s
 6.  Tio Ellinas             Manor        + 22.325s
 7.  Alex Brundle            Carlin       + 38.448s
 8.  Kevin Ceccon            Ocean        + 41.719s
 9.  Matias Laine            MW Arden     + 42.314s
10.  Patric Niederhauser     Jenzer       + 44.489s
11.  Tamas Pal Kiss          Atech CRS    + 53.795s
12.  Robert Visoiu           Jenzer     + 1m00.061s
13.  Giovanni Venturini      Trident    + 1m02.451s
14.  Facu Regalia            Jenzer     + 1m03.081s
15.  Kotaro Sakurai          Status     + 1m05.140s
16.  Marlon Stockinger       Status     + 1m12.707s
17.  Alice Powell            Status     + 1m26.048s
18.  Vicky Piria             Trident    + 1m34.318s
19.  Fabiano Machado         Manor      + 1m38.754s
20.  Robert Cregan           Ocean      + 1m39.170s
21.  Antonio Spavone         Trident    + 1m39.960s
22.  Dmitry Suranovich       Manor      + 1m40.812s
23.  Fabio Gamberini         Atech CRS      + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Ethen Ringel            Atech CRS       2 laps
     Will Buller             Carlin          0 laps