Despite a five second penalty being added to his final time, championship leader Luca Ghiotto maintained his championship lead though it’s been cut from 23 points to 14. The race brought Artur Janosz a 13th place and unfortunately for GP3 returnee and Trident Motorsport newcomer Beitske Visser it was a retirement after just a few laps due to a first gear failure.
Luca Ghiotto: Starting position: P1; Final position: P6
At the start, he got a little too much wheelspin and dropped down to fourth place at the first corner. After just a few laps, Ghiotto rebounded by cruising to third place, although a collision with the car he had in front cost him a 5-second penalty. The Italian managed to keep a consistent gap on the car he had behind and crossed the line in third before being demoted to sixth by the penalty. Luca and the whole team are already focusing on tomorrow’s race 2 as they will be taking-off from the second row on the grid.
Artur Janosz: Starting position: P17; Final position: P13
Starting from the 9th row, the Polish driver was involved in a collision, damaging his front wing and flap which cost him quite some ground. After the first lap, Artur managed to get some spots back up to the 14th position. His pace was quite consistent despite the tyre wear issues on the front end of his car due to the conservative set-up developed for him at Spa.
Beitske Visser: Starting position: P19; Final position: RETIRED
The team’s latest addition for Spa-Francorchamps, Beitske Visser, started race 1 from 19th place but a slight mistake at the start eventually led her to an early retirement. Once the lights went off, the Dutch racer stalled and damaged the first gear. The car took-off anyway for the first part of the race, but stopped a few laps afterwards when the gearbox eventually let go. Beitske had to retire but she is already looking forward to the sprint race tomorrow.
The Sprint Race is scheduled for 9:25am local time.
