Conor Daly - Photo Credit: Alastair Staley/GP3 Media Service
Conor Daly scored his first race victory in the GP3 Series in the second race at the season-opening weekend, after the race leader was penalised for a jump start just as on Saturday.
It was Tio Ellinas who moved into the lead at the start from second on the grid ahead of third-place starter Daly and polesitter Robert Visoiu. Ellinas was found guilty of jumping the start however, handing Daly the lead when he served a drive-through penalty.
From there Lotus GP driver Daly never looked back, the American crossing the finish line with a 3.2 second advantage over Visoiu. His father and former F1 driver Derek was there to watch him on the top step of the podium.
Visoiu's second place was an impressive end to a good debut weekend in GP3, the 16-year-old Romanian only in his second year of car racing. Finn Matias Laine completed the podium.
Laine's MW Arden teammate David Fumanelli had been pushing him hard for that third place, but was penalised for ignoring yellow flags. Aaro Vainio inherited fourth and crossed the line just behind compatriot Laine and ahead of Patric Niederhauser.
Daniel Abt and Antonio Felix da Costa had both lost the lead of Saturday's race for jump starts, but both made good progress from 13th and 14th on the grid. They were running seventh and eighth when Felix da Costa made a last-gasp move under braking at turn ten, the pair banging wheels but the Carlin driver getting through. The pair crossed the line sixth and seventh after Fumanelli was relegated.
Alex Brundle made it a double-points-scoring debut weekend in GP3 as he took eighth, after applying pressure to Abt in the closing stages and finishing just four tenths behind.
William Buller and Kevin Ceccon had started the race on the penultimate row of the grid after both stopping during Saturday's race. Despite having cooked their tyres the two battled fiercely during the latter half of the race, with Buller defending brilliantly to keep hold of ninth.
Alice Powell finished a difficult first weekend in GP3 with a fine 11th place finish having started behind Buller and Ceccon in 25th place.
Her Status Grand Prix teammate Kotaro Sakurai finished 12th, getting by Fabiano Machado at turn one with the Brazilian spinning off in the process. John Wartique and Jakub Klasterka were next up ahead of a recovering Ellinas, Vicky Piria and the penalised Fumanelli.
Ethan Ringel was 18th, ahead of Saturday's second-place finisher Marlon Stockinger who had problems at the start. Yesterday's winner Mitch Evans suffered a puncture early on that dropped him to the back, finishing ahead of Carmen Jorda.
A turn one incident saw Tamas Pal Kiss, Dmitry Suranovich, Robert Cregan and Antonio Spavone eliminated.
