Giuliano Alesi won the GP3 Series Sprint Race at Silverstone to claim his maiden victory in the category.
Pole sitter Dorian Boccolacci was not able to make the start, resigned to the pits it was down to Alesi to lead the drivers away.
All the drivers got through the first lap cleanly, as Alesi retained his inherited lead as Jack Aitken managed to get pass Arjun Maini to claim second place.
Maini soon found himself down in fourth place after Niko Kari got ahead of him at the end of lap three with the aid of DRS.
The safety car was deployed following an incident between Julien Falchero and Steijn Schothorst coming into Turn 1 which left the pair beached in the gravel – with the incident to be investigated after the race.
As the safety car was deployed Feature Race winner George Russell was close to getting a move done on Maini but had to back out of it to avoid being penalised.
It was an uneventful restart which saw the drivers hold their positions, but Alesi managed to get the jump on Aitken to pull out a second gap.
Nirei Fukuzumi and Bruno Baptista found themselves under investigated for overtaking under the safety car, which saw the former be handed a ten second time penalty.
At the end of the ninth lap, Russell finally managed to get ahead of Maini – whilst behind them contact between Alessio Lorandi and Anthoine Hubert saw the ART Grand Prix driver be forced off track and drop a number of positions.
The incident between Lorandi and Hubert was added to the list of investigations. The stewards deemed no further action was warranted.
Another incident was added to the ever growing list when Santino Ferrucci hit Leonardo Pulcini ending with the Italian in the gravel, and also ended with no further action.
Outfront, the battle between the top four was hotting up in the closing stages but despite the tense racing the leading quartet crossed the line in the positions they had been running in.
Alesi claimed his first GP3 victory, joined on the podium by Aitken and Kari. Championship leader Russell finished in fourth place as: Maini, Lorandi, Kevin Jörg and Hubert completed the points paying positions.
2017 GP3 Series Sprint Race Results – Silverstone
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