Starting from ninth on the grid meant that Jake Hughes had to fight his way up to the front, as he easily saw off the ART Grand Prix trio of Alexander Albon, Nirei Fukuzumi and Charles Leclerc as he aimed to complete the all British podium.
“I was entertaining from my side. I dropped one place at the start. Unfortunately my team-mate (Kevin Jörg) broke down in the middle of Ascari. I was stuck behind him and lost another position but sorted it out before the safety car.” Hughes told gp3series.com. “I don’t think I’ve had a better race car in my life. I really enjoyed it.
“I set the fastest lap four or five laps in a row. It was ridiculously easy, it was almost unfair. I had so much speed to attack into Parabolica and Turn 1. Some of the moves were on the limit.”
Tyreware had been an issue for Hughes in Spa which cost him dearly after a front row start in the Feature Race ended pointless, but no such issue was apparent in the race at Monza as he set a string of fastest laps as he attempted to catch and subsequently pass Jack Aitken.
“Some of the ART boys were very fair on me and there could have been an accident if they had turned in on me. After Spa I have to say this is all of DAMS’ work. We qualified on the front row there and we scored no points. What we did today is a minimum of what we would have done there in both races. Today just confirmed that to me so a mega thanks to the team.”
“From my side we’ve always had a good car in the race. We just struggled with our qualifying form but we seem to have fixed it since the summer break. These boys had new tyres, so me coming from P9-P3. I caught Jack but my rear tyres died near the end and he defended well. I could push like I was in qualifying.”
Hughes is now eighth in the Drivers’ Championship on 69 points, additionally his DAMS team sit fifth in the Teams’ Championship on 116 points.
