Jake Hughes fought back to the front to claim his first GP3 Series win. The Brit had started on pole for the second Hockenheim race, but would only retake the lead just before the virtual safety car was called.
Arjun Maini had made the most of polesitter Hughes’ poor start, taking the lead into turn one. The DAMS driver attempted to minimise the damage and held off the pack to keep second as the cars completed their first lap.
At the back, Ralph Boschung found himself in the wars, as he collected Arthur Janosz into the hairpin. The Swiss drivers front wing was caught under Janosz’s car and the he soon crashed with no traction and a rear puncture.
A virtual safety car was called just as Hughes got alongside Maini. His move was deemed to be legal and on the restart, Hughes drove off into the distance.
Maini though timed it poorly and lost a number of places, falling to sixth. Some had benefited from the restart though, as Charles Leclerc worked his way into second in front of Jack Aitken. The gap between the top three became incredibly stretched out as the race approached its halfway stage.
One driver who hadn’t benefited was Antonio Fuoco. He soon made his problem worse after running wide at the first corner and dropping out of the top ten.
Further back, Santino Ferrucci looked to defend a personal best result of the season. The American had made his way into fourth but spent the first half under pressure from Matt Parry, Maini and Nyck de Vries.
The pressure was temporarily relieved though as Maini finally made a position back up the grid. The Indian wasn’t the only driver on the move though, as Jake Dennis pressured de Vries for seventh. Dennis would later disposed of Parry for sixth.
Back up front, Leclerc once again found himself struggling on his tyres. Aitken knew this and used the slipstream into the hairpin to take second.
Unchallenged, Hughes took his and DAMS first ever GP3 victory. Aitken ended up in second with Leclerc hanging on to a late podium. Ferrucci took his equal best result of the season as Maini recovered to fifth after his poor VSC restart.
Dennis’ drive through the field gifted him four points for sixth, while Parry and de Vries were not able to capitalise on a bad day for the the remaining championship contenders.
Hockenheim Race 2 Results
[table id=1352 /]
