Jack Aitken finally secured his first podium finish of the GP3 Series season, capitalising on the tyre issues of Charles Leclerc to grab second in the closing stages on Sunday.
The 2015 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Series champion has shown good pace at times during the season, but it all finally come together at the Hockenheimring, and left Germany on a high with the runners-up spot behind race winner Jake Hughes.
The Renault Sport Academy driver felt the whole Arden International team showed good pace and longevity with their tyre wear during the weekend, with Aitken admitting it was relatively easy to pass the ailing Leclerc for second.
“In the end he made it relatively easy for me as he was struggling a lot on his tyres,” said Aitken on gp3series.com. “I was sill quite strong so I think he knew the sensible thing was to not fight it too much.
“It was relative straight-forward. In the laps before that I was just focusing on keeping the laps consistent as I could see he was struggling.
“For me there was a little bit of deg, but I think as a team we were really strong because me, Jake [Dennis] and Tatiana [Calderon] were all really strong. We really nailed that!
“It’s a nice way to finish ahead of the summer break. If we’d had another c**p round here, it would have been a bit hard to swallow so it’s good to go with some momentum.”