Muller wins eventful Valencia race
Jenzer Motorsport's Nico Muller won an eventful GP3 Series sprint race in Valencia on Sunday morning
The Swiss driver beat polesitter James Jakes off the line to lead into the first corner and was never troubled thereafter, eventually winning by 3.2s.
But it could have been a different story had the race been a few laps longer, as Atech's Roberto Merhi, who moved into second midway through the race, had reeled off a string of fastest laps to reduce what had been a leading margin of nearly six seconds.
Jakes, meanwhile, initially fell to third at the start when he went to the outside at turn one and allowed Rio Haryanto past, but reclaimed the spot from the Indonesian a few laps later - only to lose it again to Merhi.
Haryanto held on to fourth, but the scrap for the final points places was chaotic.
Points leader Esteban Gutierrez was removed from contention early on when he was hit from behind by Robert Wickens, the Canadian receiving a drive-through penalty that also cost him a likely points finish. Wickens was later involved in another incident with Status team-mate Ivan Lukashevich which was due to be looked at by the stewards after the race.
That left Tobias Hegewald and Stefano Coletti in the points, but a scrap between the pair ended with Hegewald in the barriers and Coletti losing fifth to Adrian Quaife-Hobbs.
Coletti then had to deal with a recovering Gutierrez for the final laps, but managed to hold the Mexican off to secure the final point.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Nico Muller Jenzer 28m01.567s 2. Roberto Merhi Atech CRS + 3.208s 3. James Jakes Manor + 6.641s 4. Rio Haryanto Manor + 15.423s 5. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Manor + 17.054s 6. Stefano Coletti Tech 1 + 18.172s 7. Esteban Gutierrez ART + 18.779s 8. Pal Varhaug Jenzer + 24.997s 9. Pablo Sanchez Lopez Addax + 26.149s 10. Mirko Bortolotti Addax + 29.817s 11. Pedro Nunes ART + 31.100s 12. Daniel Morad Status + 31.455s 13. Miki Monras MW Arden + 31.598s 14. Michael Christensen MW Arden + 35.706s 15. Nigel Melker RSC Mucke + 37.647s 16. Robert Wickens Status + 39.002s 17. Jean-Eric Vergne Tech 1 + 39.118s 18. Felipe Guimaraes Addax + 41.936s 19. Oliver Oakes Atech CRS + 45.869s 20. Doru Sechelariu Tech 1 + 46.030s 21. Leonardo Cordeiro MW Arden + 47.519s 22. Vittorio Ghirelli Atech CRS + 48.557s 23. Dean Smith Carlin + 54.615s 24. Renger van der Zande RSC Mucke + 1m06.160s 25. Ivan Lukashevich Status + 1m06.493s 26. Josef Newgarden Carlin + 1m14.601s 27. Simon Trummer Jenzer + 1 laps 28. Lucas Foresti Carlin + 1 laps 29. Tobias Hegewald RSC Mucke + 2 laps Retirements: Alexander Rossi ART 3 laps
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