Ghiotto extends championship lead with Race 1 victory

Luca Ghiotto extended his GP3 championship lead in the first race of the weekend. Starting from pole position, Ghiotto optimised race one by picking up the win and bonus points of pole position and fastest lap. Taking his second career GP3 win saw him extend his lead in the GP3 championship. Esteban Ocon and Marvin Kirchhöfer completed the podium respectively.

Race one of round four started in the setting sun at the Hungaroring, with track temperature being at it’s lowest all day. Sandy Stuvik had to start from the pits due to a mechanical issue on his way to the starting grid, joining Alfonso Celis Jr to start from the pits. Ghiotto was slow off the start, and a fighting launch from Ocon and Emil Bernstorff almost saw it slip through his fingers. Ocon managed to gain second place down the first straight but was out broken by Bernstorff taking their battle into the first few corners. Ocon had the better line through the first two corners and managed to retake second place, beginning his chase on the leading Ghiotto. Kevin Ceccon also managed to gain a position as Ghiotto and Ocon pulled a gap to Bernstorff behind, leaving him in the clutches of Matthew Parry, whilst Ralf Boschung got a lot of wheel spin off the start, causing him to loose a few places.

Zaid Ashkanani pulled into the pits on lap two for a front wing repair whilst the yellow flags came out for Jann Mardenborough who had been in a collision with the Campos Racing car. The contact had seen Ashkanani go over the rear left tyre of Mardenborough coming out of the final corner, taking out his own front wing and the Carlin’s rear wing. Mardenborough stopped on the side of the track due to damage to his rear wing, bringing out the safety car and becoming the first and only retiree of the race.

Ghiotto lead the pack through the four-lap safety car period and on the restart managed to defend from an attacking Ocon behind to hold onto his lead. The rest of the grid remained the same as they were lead through turn one after the restart. Over the next couple of laps, Mathéo Tuscher managed to gain a place from his teammate, Boschung, who appeared to be struggling for grip as his tyres degraded. Tuscher, who seemed desperate for the position with his daring overtaking manoeuvre, squeezed Boschung of the track, but succeeded in getting the position cleanly in the next few corners.

The biggest mover after the restart was Marvin Kirchhöfer, who optimised on Bernstorff’s poor traction out of the final corner to take the last step of the podium from the Brit. Due to Bernstorff’s poor traction and clear struggling he was dropped into the grasp of the quickly advancing Parry, who looked eager for his forth position. The battle stayed close for a few corners but Parry, although holding onto Bernstorff’s rear wing, couldn’t make any overtaking moves stick. He dropped back slightly; staying close enough to expose any opportunity Bernstorff gave him without running too much in the Brit’s dirty air. Further down the grid Seb Morris went in too deep trying to overtake Mitchell Gilbert in the number three Carlin for tenth position, costing himself two positions.

The top six began to pull away from the rest of the pack, with just over a second advantage to Ghiotto in the lead from Ocon. Sabin Gómez, on her return to GP3 having sat out the British races, was holding back a charging Stuvik who was setting fastest lap after fastest lap in an attempt to bring back the two laps he lost at the beginning of the race, having started from the pit lane, at the rear of the grid.

The battle for third place carried on to the chequered flag but it was Kirchhöfer who managed to hold the position, with Bernstorff only three tenths behind him and Parry a further four tenths behind the Brit. It looked like Bernstorff was going to make a daring move through the last few corners to snatch the last podium position but the opportunity never arose and he had to settle with forth.

Ghiotto managed to maximise the first two days of the weekend, getting the maximum points available to him and fuelling his championship lead in the best way possible. He now leads with 113 points, with Kirchhöfer behind by 21 points. Ocon closed the gap between second and third to only 10 points with his podium finish, now on 82. ART Grand Prix still lead the team standings with 175 points, Trident in second with 132 and Arden international completing the top three with 114.

Tomorrow’s race will show how many more points Ghiotto can gain to extend his championship lead starting from eighth or how many points Kirchhöfer can close the gap to by starting sixth in the final 17-lap GP3 race at the Hungaroring, tomorrow morning at 9:25am (8:25am GMT).

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