Antonio Fuoco confirmed himself as one of the GP3 Series championship favourites as he perfected timed the restart following a Virtual Safety Car to jump from into the lead and claim his second victory of the season at the Hockenheimring last Saturday.
The Italian was running third in his Trident when the VSC was called to recover the stranded car of Matevos Isaakyan in the final sector, but got the jump on both Alexander Albon and Nyck de Vries when the race restarted, and thereafter was unthreatened to secure the win.
“It was a really good race,” said Fuoco on gp3series.com. “When the VSC period ended, me and Nyck had begun to close the gap to Alex.
“When I got into the lead of the race, the pace of the car was really good. I expected a bit more tyre degradation so I was managing everything but it went really well.
“The team did a really good job. They were on the radio with me when the VSC was about to end so I would like to say thank you to all of the team and that’s why we won the race.
Fuoco was able to conserve his tyre life better than some of his rivals as he was able to run his race on his own, feeling that had he been battling with those behind who were fighting for the lower spots on the podium, it may have been a different story.
“When you go in front it’s always easier to manage everything,” said Fuoco. “We know from Budapest if you’re in the front you can do your pace, but when you’re at the back there’s a lot more to manage.
“If I had been fighting with Charles [Leclerc], Nyck [de Vries] and Matty [Parry] then maybe I would have had some more tyre degradation. I was at the front alone and did my job and nothing special.”
