Having claimed his maiden GP3 Series pole position in the morning qualifying session George Russell backed it up with his first victory.
It was dominant display by the four ART Grand Prix drivers at the Red Bull Ring as they claimed the top four positions at the flag as Jack Aitken, Nirei Fukuzumi and Anthoine Hubert followed Russell across the line.
At the start P2 man Aitken got a slightly better start, with Russell moving to cover his team-mate with a slight squeeze to shut down any opportunity of attack going into turn one.
Dorian Boccolacci had a difficult start from third on the grid, as a result a line opened up into turn 2 which Hubert filled but bounced off the kerbs into Leonardo Pulcini who hit Arden International team-mate Steijn Schothorst resulting in a VSC period.
Race conditions were restored before the end of the lap with Russell and Aitken escaping ahead of their ART team-mates.
Hubert was handed a 10 second time penalty after it was deemed he had caused the collision which brought out the VSC. The Frenchman was running at the same pace as his team-mates who were pulling further and further away from the chasing pack.
DAMS duo Tatiana Calderon and Bruno Baptista were both handed a 5 second time penalty for overtaking under yellow flags brought out due to a collision between Julien Falchero (who received a 10 second time penalty as a result) and Niko Kari which brought the Finnish driver’s race to an end, cementing a disastrous day for Arden.
A thrilling battle developed between Ryan Tveter, Giuliano Alesi, Alessio Lorandi, Raoul Hyman and Boccolacci who spent the final few laps of the race switching positions which saw Tvert ultimately come out on top.
Russell took the flag by two seconds over Aitken. Hubert was third on track but dropped to P4 with his penalty added, promoting Fukuzumi to the podium.
Tveter, Alesi, Lorandi and Hyman claimed 5th to 8th place meaning Hyman will start on reverse grid pole as he did at the Circuit de Catalunya last time out.
Calderon had been ninth on track but classified 13th when her penalty was applied which promoted Boccolacci to ninth and Maini into the points paying positions.
Other than the three Arden cars, Santino Ferrucci was the other non-finisher after retiring in the pits early on.
The Sprint Race tomorrow gets underway at 9.10 CEST.
2017 GP3 Series Race 1 Results – Red Bull Ring
[table id=2211 /]