ART Grand Prix‘s Anthoine Hubert claimed his second victory in the GP3 Series – the first on track though – at Silverstone.
The Frenchman over came a slow getaway from pole, two Virtual Safety Car periods and one full safety car restart to claim victory by almost four seconds.
Nikita Mazepin and the championship leader going into the race Callum Ilott joined him on the podium to make it an all ART 1-2-3.
At the start Hubert, on pole for the first time in the series, suffered a scare as he was slow getting away from his grid slot but was able to hold onto his position.
Behind, Mazepin tried to attack his team-mate as Ilott got past a slow-starting Giuliano Alesi.
Alessio Lorandi was a staller on the grid, as plenty of action happened into Turn 1.
Whilst attempting to pass Julien Falchero round the outside, Juan Manuel Correa had the Arden International driver spear into him when he ran out of room. The two retired as a result.
This prompted the first VSC period of the race to allow for the wreckage to be cleared, action getting back underway on Lap 4.
Hubert got the jump on Mazepin who found himself in the clutches of Ilott.
Just as the action had got going again the second VSC was called for after Tatiana Calderon and Gabriel Aubry made contact at Luffield Corner leaving the Frenchman with broken suspension.
The short period came to an end but racing did not resume for long as Calderon ground to a halt at Stowe due to damage sustained in the incident.
All of that in the opening five laps.
On Lap 6, the racing resumed with Hubert quickly building a gap over Mazepin to dictate the pace of the race; this allowed Ilott the opportunity to attack Mazepin.
Further back, the fourth ART of Jake Hughes was battling Australian Joey Mawson for eighth.
As the race reached its halfway point, Mazepin reeled in Hubert enough to be within DRS range but the Frenchman was able to clear the Russian and break away once again.
Hughes, continued his assault on Mawson but the Australia was keen to protect his eighth place. The Arden driver was able to survive a stronger assault from the Briton after running wide but was able to breath a sigh of relief as the ART driver pulled over at the side of the track on Lap 13.
Alesi was brought into play as a result, who pushed Mawson having already managed to clear the Finnish duo of Simo Laaksonen and Niko Kari.
Flexing his muscles in the lead, Hubert had found some life still in his tyres with Ilott attempting to snatch second off Mazepin falling just short as they claim an all ART podium.
In fourth was Trident‘s Ryan Tveter with his best result of the season, after a relatively quite race. Dorian Boccolacci was able to pass Leonardo Pulcini in the latter stages of the race for fifth.
Pulcini was able to hold off Pedro Piquet for sixth after the Brazilian broke his front wing attempting an overtake.
Alesi passed Mawson in the final stage to finish in eighth to take reverse grid pole for tomorrow – last year’s Sprint Race winner at Silverstone will be optimistic of his chances once again from there.
Mawson was ninth as Lorandi, recovering from his stall rounded off the points finishers.
Kari, Diego Menchaca, Laaksonen, David Beckmann and Devlin DeFrancesco were the remaining finishers.
Aubry was deemed to have caused the collision with Calderon and as a result has been handed a three place grid penalty for the Sprint Race tomorrow which means he will start from last.
“A win is always good. It was not easy, the two virtual safety cars plus the safety car were really long in the beginning. The rhythm was really hard to get but then the race was good. It was tough,” Hubert told thecheckeredflag.co.uk after the race. “I really needed to control my pace, my tyres to get enough gap to Nikita just to make sure he would not get DRS. So I was under pressure for the whole race but I think I did quite well. Obviously my car was really really good.”
The final GP3 action of the weekend, and the conclusion of its triple header, takes place tomorrow at 8.05 local time.
2018 GP3 Series Results: Silverstone – Feature Race
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