It was two from two for ART Grand Prix in the opening round of the 2016 GP3 Series. Alexander Albon made a perfect start to overtake reverse grid pole-sitter Oscar Tunjo at turn one, with Trident and Ferrari Driver Academy‘s Antonio Fuoco joining them on the podium.
Jenzer Motorsport‘s Tunjo started on pole with Arden International‘s Jake Dennis alongside, but Albon from the second row made the best getaway and made a move on Tunjo stick round the outside of Turn 1.
Fuoco and Nyck de Vries were other drivers to make up ground on the opening lap to move up two and four places representatively.
Feature race winner Charles Leclerc had a difficult opening lap but managed to fight his way into ninth place, finding himself behind the DAMS duo of Kevin Jörg and Jake Hughes and the trio endured a race long tussle for the final points on offer.
The gap between Albon and Tunjo out front remained fairly consistent in the early stages, with Fuoco and Dennis five seconds down the road. As the laps ticked down the advantaged that the ART driver held started to increase by a tenth or two.
As the race drew to a close, Dennis lined up an attack on Fuoco for the final place on the podium, however the Italian driver was able to hold off the Briton when they reached the chequered flag.
It was a controlled race out front by Albon who took the flag 1.2s ahead of Tunjo to claim his maiden win in the category. Fuoco followed them home in third ahead of Dennis and de Vries. Matevos Isaakyan took sixth place, after starting down in eleventh place. Jörg took seventh place ahead of team-mate Hughes with Leclerc narrowly missing out on a point.
Leclerc leads the Drivers’ Standings, holding a four point advantage over team-mate Albon and DAMS’ Hughes. As a result of winning both races the Teams’ Standings is lead by ART Grand Prix ahead of DAMS with Trident in third.
The Series returns to racing at Spielberg in Austria on July 1 to 3, with teams testing there prior to the event on June 7 and 8.
2016 GP3 Series Barcelona Race 2 Results
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*Matthew Parry received a time penalty for changing position more than three times whilst making a defensive move.
