Race report

FIA F3 Spielberg

Red Bull Ring GP3: Leclerc survives late rain scare to win

GP3 championship leader Charles Leclerc took his second win in the category in the first race at the Red Bull Ring, shrugging off a slow start and late rain.

Valentin Khorounzhiy

Edited: Jul 2, 2016, 4:50 PM

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Charles Leclerc, ART Grand Prix

Polesitter Charles Leclerc, ART Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc, ART Grand Prix

Polesitter Charles Leclerc, ART Grand Prix, second place Alexander Albon, ART Grand Prix, third place Nyck De Vries, ART Grand Prix

Alexander Albon, ART Grand Prix

Nyck De Vries, ART Grand Prix

Leclerc headed home an ART 1-2-3, controlling the pace of the race in the dry but losing a fair bit of time when the rain arrived in the closing stages.

A lightining start from third on his Barcelona debut gave Leclerc the early lead and a subsequent victory, but it was an entirely different story here, the Monegasque losing first place after a slow getaway.

Instead, Alex Albon was into the lead, while Ralph Boschung then picked off Leclerc round the outside of Turn 1.

But Leclerc responded immediately, retaking second place into Remus, before diving down the inside of Albon for the lead into Schlossgold and making the move stick.

From that point on, the poleman began to significantly gap Albon, who himself came under pressure from another ART driver Nyck de Vries after the Dutchman had cleared Boschung.

But, as Leclerc's lead was up to six seconds, rain arrived at Turn 2 - as it had previously done in GP2 - significantly complicating matters yet again.

The wet patch of the track forced Leclerc to run wide on first approach, albeit his chasers made the very same mistake that time around.

But the changing conditions proved tougher on the Monegasque than his teammate Albon, who had decreased the gap to just two seconds at the chequered flag but ran out of time to challenge for victory.

While de Vries completed the ART podium lockout, Oscar Tunjo, who took his maiden GP3 win at the track last year, looked set to finish fourth, but was given a black-and-orange flag when a rearview mirror fell off his car.

As such, the spot went to Ralph Boschung instead, with Antonio Fuoco fifth - the Italian having cleared Matt Parry when the Welshman ran wide.

Nirei Fukuzumi was the last of the ART quartet in seventh, with Jake Hughes getting reverse-grid pole for Sunday in eighth and Jack Aitken and Sandy Stuvik making up the top 10.

Race results

Pos.#DriverTeamLapsTime 1 1 Charles Leclerc ART Grand Prix 24 - 2 3 Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 24 2.2 3 4 Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix 24 8.9 4 17 Ralph Boschung Koiranen GP 24 11.8 5 5 Antonio Fuoco Trident 24 13.1 6 14 Matt Parry Koiranen GP 24 15.4 7 2 Nirei Fukuzumi ART Grand Prix 24 16.6 8 27 Jake Hughes DAMS 24 18.5 9 11 Jack Aitken Arden International 24 19.1 10 8 Sandy Stuvik Trident 24 20.7 11 6 Artur Janosz Trident 24 43.1 12 18 Akash Nandy Jenzer Motorsport 24 45.5 13 28 Kevin Joerg DAMS 24 45.6 14 20 Oscar Tunjo Jenzer Motorsport 24 46.1 15 26 Santino Ferrucci DAMS 24 46.5 16 22 Alex Palou Campos Racing 24 47.6 17 10 Tatiana Calderon Arden International 24 54.3 18 24 Konstantin Tereshchenko Campos Racing 23 1 lap 19 19 Richard Gonda Jenzer Motorsport 23 1 lap 20 23 Steijn Schothorst Campos Racing 23 1 lap 16 Matevos Isaakyan Koiranen GP 4 20 laps 9 Jake Dennis Arden International 3 21 laps

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Previous article Red Bull Ring GP3: Leclerc dominates qualifying, leads ART 1-2-3-5

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