George Russell gives the first blow on the table of the year

The fight internal ART by to be the head of poster of the team dominating the GP3 seems to be settling, at least for the moment, on the side of George Russell. The british driver scored on Saturday their second win of the season in front of his home crowd at Silverstone, and made the most of the misfortune of its companion Nirei Fukuzumi, which suffered an electrical problem on the first lap to be third, to significantly extend his lead in the general classification. His victory, however, was far from being a walk in this occasion, with another of their companions, Anthoine Hubert, a strong threat for the win.

The French rider, who started in first line, took the lead in a good start, but he lacked the pace to keep it and expand it, and Russell will surpassed in Stowe on the fourth lap, with the help of the DRS. Despite this, both cars never came in to detach too much, while behind followed the movements. Niko Kari took advantage of the escamaruzas at the head of the ART to win three seats in the first round and placed third. From the seventh lap, he had behind to Alessio Lorandi, who surpassed in Brooklands to a Jack Aitken very discreet until that moment. The Italian came to come pretty close to Finnish, but a missed braking on lap 14 seemed to sink their options. A lap later, it appeared providence, in the form of a Virtual Safety Car, after staying thrown Ryan Tveter in the old main straight.

The first five are gathered together in this period and, to repeat a turn after, Lorandi was the most ready of the class to beat the game to Kari. In front of him, Hubert tried by all means to regain the lead before Russell, but without success, and the French even had to defend himself Lorandi in the final two laps. This gave the air necessary for Russell to see the checkered flag before anyone else without additional problems, and Hubert was satisfied with his first podium of the year, which was also the third to Lorandi. In the final turns, Kari had to defend themselves from the attacks of Dorian Boccolacci, who had advance to Aitken on lap 8 with a brave manoeuvre at Copse. On the penultimate lap, the French went a step further and tried to pass on the outside at Stowe to Kari.

Both followed a parallel path of Club, but Boccolacci is spent braking and, in his efforts to keep the position, hit to Kari, which was advanced by Aitken. The british ended up going to Boccolacci in the final lap for fourth place and, although the pilot of Trident crossed the finish line in fifth position, he received after the race a penalty of five seconds for the incident, falling to eighth place which, paradoxically, will cause you to leave first thing Sunday. After the sanction, the sixth place went to Arjun Maini, that he finished ahead of Giuliano Alesi. Both they and Kevin Jörg, ninth, ahead on the track to a Julien Falcherò that was seventh in the first round, but ended up asking for the time to conserve the top 10 and his first point of the year, and with the remontador Leonardo Pulcini.

The first significant lead of the championship, after what happened to Fukuzumi in the first turn, it falls on Russell, who now enjoys 26-point margin. The second position has passed at the hands of Hubert, that exceeds two points to his fellow japanese, while Lorandi confirms its status as the “best of the rest”, being the only pilot not-ART among the top five with 15 points of margin. This Sunday, at 09:00, the second chapter.

main Race of the GP3 Series 2017 at Silverstone

the general Classification of the GP3 Series 2017 (round 3 8)

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