Koiranen GP‘s Aaro Vainio pipped Conor Daly to pole on Friday and in GP3 race one the American ART Grand Prix driver was pipped once again.
Pipped is definitely the word to describe the final dash to the flag as a late safety car neutralised the race until two laps to go in which an almighty sprint ensued with the two aforementioned drivers as well as Daniil Kvyat, who scored his maiden podium ahead of Jack Harvey.
The safety car was called as a result of a three car collision resulting from Luis Sa Silva being cut up by Jenzer Motorsport‘s Samin Gomez – the hard braking in front caught out Emanuele Zonzini who went over the top of Sa Silva – thankfully all drivers escaped unscathed.
The rest of the field were entangled in their own battles, albeit with less contact, one of the biggest battles was with championship leader Tio Ellinas and Patric Niederhauser – the Swiss driver gave the Cypriot a lot of hassle for several laps before the Marussia Manor Racing driver ran wide allowing Niederhauser and Giovanni Venturini as well Dino Zamparelli the opportunity to sneak past.
Indeed two of the Bamboo Engineering racers were involved in a decent tussle for the last place in the top ten but both Melville McKee and Lewis Williamson suffered badly with tyre degradation and ended up finishing without troubling the points positions.
In the GP3 points table Ellinas still leads with 91 points but Facu Regalia, who finished sixth, has closed up only 11 points behind the Cypriot. Vainio is only 5 points behind Regalia on 75 and Daly is on 70 only a single point ahead of Jack Harvey who finished fourth.
