Felix Da Costa Wins GP3 Season Finale At Monza

Antonio Felix da Costa ended a difficult GP3 Series season on a high with victory in a dramatic final race of the year at Monza.

The Portuguese driver had begun the campaign amongst the favourites after his switch from Formula 3 having regularly set the pace in pre-season testing, but prior to Monza had only made the points places on three occasions, with a best result of fourth.

He began this race on the front row alongside Mitch Evans, and got the jump on the Kiwi to take the lead at the start. Conor Daly held third off the line but was then hit in the rear by newly-crowned champion Valtteri Bottas under braking for Ascari. The Finn was handed a drive-through penalty, and eventually crossed the line down in 17^th having set the fastest lap.

This promoted Bottas' teammate James Calado into third and the Briton soon had the lead of the race. Evans fell back to third, but later used the slipstream effect to regain the lead from Calado. Calado attacked Evans for the lead at the first corner three laps later but hit Evans, putting him out of the race.

While Felix da Costa took the lead of the race and the victory, Calado was handed a drive-through penalty. He failed to serve it though, and after crossing the line in second he was given a 20 second penalty that dropped him to 14^th. Rio Haryanto was promoted to second place, with Nico Muller completing the podium. Simon Trummer, Callum MacLeod and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs collected the remaining points.

Behind Bottas and runner-up Calado, Nigel Melker held onto third place despite a point-less weekend. Muller's podium lifted him to fourth, one place behind where he finished last season.

Race 2 results – 16 laps:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Antonio Felix da Costa	Status Grand Prix	28:28.320
2	Rio Haryanto	Marussia Manor Racing	0.720
3	Nico Müller	Jenzer Motorsport	1.208
4	Simon Trummer	MW Arden	1.935
5	Callum MacLeod	Carlin	2.308
6	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	Marussia Manor Racing	6.235
7	Gabby Chaves	Addax Team	7.027
8	Aaro Vainio	Tech 1 Racing	7.599
9	Tom Dillmann	Carlin	9.949
10	Lewis Williamson	MW Arden	10.128
11	Michael Christensen	RSC Mücke Motorsport	10.699
12	Tamás Pál Kiss	Tech 1 Racing	11.320
13	Marlon Stockinger	Atech CRS Grand Prix	11.426
14	James Calado	Lotus ART	20.397
15	Daniel Mancinelli	RSC Mücke Motorsport	23.506
16	Maxim Zimin	Jenzer Motorsport	39.759
17	Valtteri Bottas	Lotus ART	42.707
18	Vittorio Ghirelli	Addax Team	1:04.588
19	Richie Stanaway	Lotus ART	1:05.428
20	Christophe Hurni	Jenzer Motorsport	1:34.972
Ret	Mitch Evans	MW Arden	13 laps
Ret	Nigel Melker	RSC Mücke Motorsport	9 laps
Ret	Nick Yelloly	Atech CRS Grand Prix	9 laps
Ret	Leonardo Cordeiro	Carlin	6 laps
Ret	Matias Laine	Marussia Manor Racing	5 laps
Ret	Zoël Amberg	Atech CRS Grand Prix	3 laps
Ret	Ivan Lukashevich	Status Grand Prix	3 laps
Ret	Alexander Sims	Status Grand Prix	1 lap
Ret	Thomas Hylkema	Tech 1 Racing	1 lap
Ret	Conor Daly	Carlin	0 laps

Final drivers' standings after 8 rounds:

Position	Driver	Points
1	Valtteri Bottas	62
2	James Calado	55
3	Nigel Melker	38
4	Nico Müller	36
5	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	36
6	Alexander Sims	34
7	Rio Haryanto	31
8	Lewis Williamson	31
9	Mitch Evans	29
10	Andrea Caldarelli	20
11	Michael Christensen	19
12	Dean Smith	18
13	Antonio Felix da Costa	16
14	Tom Dillmann	15
15	Aaro Vainio	12
16	Tamás Pál Kiss	11
17	Conor Daly	10
18	Simon Trummer	9
19	Gabby Chaves	8
20	Richie Stanaway	7
21	Nick Yelloly	7
22	Luciano Bacheta	4
23	Callum Macleod	3
24	Alex Fontana	1
25	Vittorio Ghirelli	0
32	Pedro Nunes	0
26	Ivan Lukashevich	0
27	Maxim Zimin	0
28	Zoël Amberg	0
29	Marlon Stockinger	0
30	Leonardo Cordeiro	0
31	Matias Laine	0
33	Daniel Morad	0
34	Thomas Hylkema	0
35	Daniel Mancinelli	0
36	Christophe Hurni	0
37	Dominic Storey	0