Tamas Pal Kiss claimed a lights-to-flag win in Race 2 at Barcelona to score his and the Tech 1 Racing team's first GP3 Series victory.
While the Hungarian made a good start to lead into Turn 1 there were chaotic scenes behind. Nico Muller failed to get away from fourth place, and as the rest of the field tried to avoid the Jenzer car Marlon Stockinger hit Muller and then collected Alexander Sims as he spun.
After the restart Muller led away from Nigel Melker, who had taken second place from Dean Smith at the start. Aaro Vainio was defending fourth place from Tech 1 teammate Andrea Caldarelli when he was handed a drive-through for jumping the start.
Kiss held onto the lead until he crossed the finish line, 2.5 seconds ahead of Melker, with Smith third and Caldarelli fourth. Race 1 winner Mitch Evans finished fifth, with Valtteri Bottas taking the final point in sixth.
“I was quite comfortable today, and we made a different strategy for the race for the tyres,” said Kiss. “I didn't want to overheat the tyres at the beginning and after the start it was reasonably okay and I had a bit of luck with the safety car, as I knew I would be able to get a bit of a gap.
“Then I just tried to keep calm and manage my tyres which all worked. I then had to keep Melker behind me. We were both on the limit at the end, and I tried hard not to make mistakes.”
Melker remains in the championship lead after two rounds, just two points ahead of Caldarelli. Evans is three points further back in third, with a nine point gap to the chasing pack.
With GP3 not racing at Monaco the cars will next be on track for the first of two midseason tests at the Hungaroring on 1-2 June. The next round will be supporting the European Grand Prix at Valencia's street circuit on 25-26 June.
Race results after 16 laps:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
1 | Tamas Pal Kiss | Tech 1 Racing | 31:08.280 |
2 | Nigel Melker | RSC Mucke Motorsport | 1.294 |
3 | Dean Smith | Addax Team | 2.657 |
4 | Andrea Caldarelli | Tech 1 Racing | 4.055 |
5 | Mitch Evans | MW Arden | 5.671 |
6 | Valtteri Bottas | Lotus ART | 9.341 |
7 | Vittorio Ghirelli | Jenzer Motorsport | 10.615 |
8 | Lewis Williamson | MW Arden | 11.830 |
9 | Zoel Amberg | Atech CRS GP | 14.205 |
10 | Rio Haryanto | Marussia Manor Racing | 15.542 |
11 | Michael Christensen | RSC Mucke Motorsport | 17.398 |
12 | Ivan Lukashevich | Status Grand Prix | 18.038 |
13 | Daniel Morad | Carlin | 19.171 |
14 | Leonardo Cordeiro | Carlin | 19.733 |
15 | Luciano Bacheta | RSC Mucke Motorsport | 22.275 |
16 | Antonio Felix Da Costa | Status Grand Prix | 22.785 |
17 | Gabriel Chaves | Addax Team | 27.122 |
18 | Nick Yelloly | Atech CRS GP | 29.727 |
19 | Maxim Zimin | Jenzer Motorsport | 30.18 |
20 | Aaro Vainio | Tech 1 Racing | 31.256 |
21 | James Calado | Lotus ART | 43.066 |
22 | Conor Daly | Carlin | 46.796 |
23 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | Marussia Manor Racing | 50.892 |
24 | Matias Laine | Marussia Manor Racing | +1 lap |
25 | Simon Trummer | MW Arden | + 2 laps |
26 | Pedro Nunes | Lotus ART | + 2 laps |
27 | Dominic Storey | Addax Team | + 2 laps |
Ret | Nico Muller | Jenzer Motorsport | 0 laps |
Ret | Marlon Stockinger | Atech CRS GP | 0 laps |
Ret | Alexander Sims | Status Grand Prix | 0 laps |