Silverstone GP3: Fuoco scores maiden victory in damp race

The race, which started on a slightly wet track, saw Sandy Stuvik squeezing past reverse grid polesitter Arjun Maini and keeping the lead despite going wide at Turn 1.

Maini, who made his debut in GP3 this weekend, suffered a poor opening lap as he was quickly passed by Charles Leclerc and Alex Palou, the duo starting from seventh and 10th on the grid.

Also under attack from Matt Parry, the Welshman hit the back of the Indian's car, damaging his own front wing and giving Maini a puncture.

Following a short safety car stint, caused by Giuliano Alesi stopping on track after sending Jake Hughes into a spin, Palou took the lead from Stuvik.

Stuvik then rapidly started to drop down the order with Parry passing Leclerc to take second.

However, the local driver was given a black-and-orange flag as well as a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Maini and was soon out of contention.

Once Parry pitted, Leclerc was all over Palou on the drying track but, unable to pass him immediately, the duo was joined by Antonio Fuoco and Jake Dennis.

The VSC neutralised the action for the second time in order to clear the beached car of Akash Nandy, who spun into the gravel.

While Palou held on to the lead on the restart despite slightly running wide, Dennis made the same mistake and ended up spinning out.

Leclerc meanwhile came under increasing pressure from Fuoco, the Italian soon going past the Monegasque in the outside of Stowe.

Palou went off track at the same corner next time around and had to give up the lead to Fuoco.

He narrowly kept second from Leclerc, who was demoted by Nyck de Vries instead.

With the time clocking down at the time of Fuoco crossing the line, unaware of the race being over, the field ran an extra lap.

Palou dropped behind the ART duo on that lap but the results were reverted to a lap earlier, giving the Spaniard second.

De Vries was given a time penalty for colliding with Ralph Boschung earlier in the race to be classified eighth.

Haas development driver Santino Ferrucci and Steijn Schothorst made strong-late race charges to take fourth and fifth ahead of Jack Aitken and Nirei Fukuzumi.

Sprint race results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Antonio Fuoco	Trident	11	27'55.438
2	Alex Palou	Campos Racing	11	27'55.897	0.459
3	Charles Leclerc	ART Grand Prix	11	27'56.021	0.583
4	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	11	27'59.133	3.695
5	Steijn Schothorst	Campos Racing	11	28'00.498	5.060
6	Jack Aitken	Arden International	11	28'01.064	5.626
7	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	11	28'01.782	6.344
8	Nyck de Vries	ART Grand Prix	11	28'01.808	6.370
9	Jake Dennis	Arden International	11	28'03.171	7.733
10	Sandy Stuvik	Trident	11	28'05.352	9.914
11	Kevin Joerg	DAMS	11	28'06.328	10.890
12	Ralph Boschung	Koiranen GP	11	28'07.529	12.091
13	Konstantin Tereshchenko	Campos Racing	11	28'20.356	24.918
14	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	11	28'30.904	35.466
15	Artur Janosz	Trident	11	28'42.075	46.637
16	Matt Parry	Koiranen GP	11	28'45.845	50.407
17	Jake Hughes	DAMS	11	28'47.398	51.960
18	Matevos Isaakyan	Koiranen GP	11	28'50.842	55.404
19	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	11	29'12.234	1'16.796
R	Tatiana Calderon	Arden International	10	26'59.577	1 Lap
R	Akash Nandy	Jenzer Motorsport	7	17'41.132	4 Laps
R	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	0