After claiming his maiden GP3 Series victory last time out at Silverstone, Giuliano Alesi has backed it up with another Sprint Race victory at the Hungaroring.
The Frenchman was joined on the podium by team-mates Ryan Tveter and Kevin Jörg with Dorian Boccolacci coming home in fourth to make it a Trident 1-2-3-4.
Tveter started from reverse grid pole, making a good getaway to cover Jörg but ran too deep to allow Alesi to sneak pass into the lead ahead of the pair.
Further back, Nirei Fukuzumi span at Turn 3 and Leonardo Pulcini ran deep at Turn 4 forcing both men to come into the pits – resulting in the ART Grand Prix driver to retire.
Alessio Lorandi was keen to ruin Trident’s party out front by trying to force himself into the mix by passing Boccolacci into the final turn before setting about hunting down the leading trio.
However the Italian was not able to keep up with the leading pace which led to him running over the huge kerbs at Turn 11 on lap 7 which resulted in him having to retire with a puncture a few corners later.
A train of drivers developed behind Boccolacci who was now back in fourth place, with the fight briefly halted with a virtual safety car to allow for the removal of Bruno Baptista‘s DAMS machine which had stopped at Turn 6.
Championship leader George Russell got a good restart to take P9 from Raoul Hyman.
Yesterday’s race winner Jack Aitken went to make a move on Boccolacci before jumping over the kerbs causing him to lose positions when he rejoined the track, just ahead of Russell, only to retire with a puncture.
Another VSC period was deployed as a result of yet another puncture, though this time for Julien Falchero as Russell took to the bits for fresh rubber and a new front wing after tapping the back of Aitken.
As the laps counted down Alesi controlled the pace to lead Tveter by just 0.6 seconds at the flag with Jörg a further two seconds back.
Anthoine Hubert was the best placed ART in fifth place ahead of Niko Kari, Hyman and Marcos Siebert.
Heading into the summer break Russell still leads the championship ahead of stablemates Aitken, Hubert and Fukuzumi. Alesi has promoted himself into fifth ahead of Lorandi.
ART remain on top in the teams’ championship on 311 points to Trident’s 152 points with Jenzer in third with 99 points.
Racing resumes 25-27 August at Spa-Francorchamps.
2017 GP3 Series Sprint Race Results – Hungaroring
[table id=2293 /]