The second round of the 2018 GP3 Series took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard at the weekend.
ART Grand Prix duo Anthoine Hubert and Callum Ilott claimed their first wins in the series.
Hubert, heads the championship with 63 points.
ART still pole-less
Considering the dominance they have experienced in qualifying over the past two seasons it is a surprise that the team are yet to start of pole this season.
It may have only been two sessions with Leonardo Pulcini and Dorian Boccolacci taking honours this far.
The last time ART had failed to qualify in the opening race of the 2016 championship at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya when Jake Hughes – now at ART – took pole for DAMS.
Despite this the team has still won three out of the four races that there has been this year.
It has only been the slightest of margins that the ART drivers have missed out on the top spot and will be keen to return there at the next round.
Hubert wins at home
On Saturday Anthoine Hubert would have felt pretty happy having finished his home race in second place.
However, five hours after the race ended the Frenchman found out that the race win was in fact his.
The race had been won by country-man Boccolacci but he, and his MP Motorsport team-mate Niko Kari, was disqualified for failing to meet the one litre mandatory fuel sample limit.
As a result Boccolacci lost his second win in the series, and Hubert was declared the victor of his home race for his maiden victory.
Hubert heads the championship going to Austria having taken two second places, and a seventh, in addition to his win to lead the way with 63 points to his name.
Maiden win for Ilott
After finishing the Feature Race down in tenth, Callum Ilott would not have left Paul Ricard particularly happy.
However, following the disqualifications of Boccolacci and Kari the Briton was promoted to eighth and therefore started the Sprint Race from reverse grid pole position.
Despite briefly falling back to second place at the start, Ilott was able to control the race to win for the first time in the series.
This means Hughes is the only ART driver yet to win this season.
The GP3 Series returns to action 29 June – 1 July at the Red Bull Ring.
