Silverstone GP3: Albon leads dominant ART 1-2 in feature race

While front row starters Albon and Sandy Stuvik had good getaways to take first and second early on, Matevos Isaakyan took advantage of a poor start from debutant Arjun Maini to sit third.

However, Antonio Fuoco forced his way through on Lap 2 and Isaakyan then ran wide at Copse, dropping behind Charles Leclerc and Jake Hughes as well.

Fuoco was soon under pressure from the aforementioned duo, but the Italian rapidly closed in on Stuvik as well.

Fuoco made a successful move on Stuvik for second but, with Leclerc and Hughes following him through just a couple of corners later, he was not able to pull away.

Leclerc overtook Fuoco at halfway point of the race, forcing his way past the fellow Ferrari junior around the outside at Stowe.

While the Monegasque slowly started to make up ground on Albon, who was leading by four seconds at that point, Fuoco came under attack from Hughes.

However, the rear wing suddenly broke on the DAMS machine of Hughes while running in the slipstream of Fuoco, and the Briton was forced to pit, giving fourth place to Stuvik.

The Trident driver lost further positions in the second half of the race as he was passed by Matt Parry and Matevos Isaakyan, the latter receiving a black-and-orange flag due to damage on his car.

Meanwhile, at the front, the gap of two seconds between Albon and Leclerc remained unchanged in the final couple of laps.

Albon took the chequered flag in first, taking his fourth straight top-two finish, with Leclerc failing to win a feature race for the first time this year.

Fuoco completed the podium a further 10 seconds adrift as Parry secured fourth.

Nyck de Vries crossed the line in fifth and remained there despite a five-second time penalty for making contact with ART teammate Nirei Fukuzumi early in the race.

Ralph Boschung and Artur Janosz both passed Stuvik for sixth and seventh respectively.

The Thai driver missed out on the reverse-grid pole on the last lap, with Jake Dennis stealing the spot from him.

GP3 debutant Maini, who dropped down to the outskirts of the top 10 after the start from third on the grid, passed Alex Palou on the last lap to claim the final point-scoring position.

UPDATE: Dennis and Janosz were penalised for track limits, handing Maini eighth and reverse-grid pole for the sprint race.

Feature race results

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	3	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	20	-
2	1	Charles Leclerc	ART Grand Prix	20	1.6
3	5	Antonio Fuoco	Trident	20	12.2
4	14	Matt Parry	Koiranen GP	20	19.5
5	4	Nyck de Vries	ART Grand Prix	20	25.0
6	17	Ralph Boschung	Koiranen GP	20	29.0
7	8	Sandy Stuvik	Trident	20	33.3
8	20	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	20	34.1
9	6	Artur Janosz	Trident	20	30.4
10	22	Alex Palou	Campos Racing	20	36.2
11	2	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	20	36.4
12	9	Jake Dennis	Arden International	20	31.6
13	11	Jack Aitken	Arden International	20	36.8
14	23	Steijn Schothorst	Campos Racing	20	37.0
15	28	Kevin Joerg	DAMS	20	38.0
16	7	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	20	38.8
17	10	Tatiana Calderon	Arden International	20	39.6
18	26	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	20	42.9
19	18	Akash Nandy	Jenzer Motorsport	20	43.1
20	24	Konstantin Tereshchenko	Campos Racing	20	50.7
21	16	Matevos Isaakyan	Koiranen GP	20	51.6
22	27	Jake Hughes	DAMS	13	7 laps