Silverstone GP3: Alesi holds off Aitken to score maiden win
Ferrari junior Giuliano Alesi secured his maiden GP3 victory in the sprint race at Silverstone, withstanding race-long pressure from Jack Aitken.
Photo by: GP3 Series Media Service
Having been given a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Niko Kari, Dorian Boccolacci was relegated to eighth in Saturday's feature race, and thus was set to start the sprint race from pole.
However, the Frenchman was unable to even make it to the grid, his car being pulled into the pits as the field started the formation lap.
That gave Alesi pole position, and the Trident driver kept the lead off the line.
Aitken gained two places in three corners to run second, and closely followed Alesi for the first three laps before the safety car, brought out because of Julien Falchero and Steijn Schothorst both retiring in the gravel at Turn 1, neutralised the action.
Alesi stayed ahead after the restart and, while he couldn't pull away from Aitken for the rest of the race, the latter was never close enough to try to make a move.
Alesi eventually won the race by 0.7s from Aitken, while Red Bull protege Niko Kari held off Saturday winner George Russell for third place.
Kari and Russell passed Arjun Maini before and after the safety car phase respectively, and followed the top two in the late stages.
Instead of attacking Aitken, Kari had to focus on keeping the charging Russell at bay, the Finn securing his maiden podium finish in GP3.
Maini was fifth, four seconds behind Russell, ahead of his Jenzer teammate Alessio Lorandi.
Lorandi was involved in an incident with Anthoine Hubert, who he slightly forced off-track, but the Italian escaped without a penalty.
Hubert dropped down to eighth as Kevin Jorg also overtook him.
Race results
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 15 | 30'04.801 |
2 | Jack Aitken | ART Grand Prix | 15 | 0.724 |
3 | Niko Kari | Arden International | 15 | 1.431 |
4 | George Russell | ART Grand Prix | 15 | 1.857 |
5 | Arjun Maini | Jenzer Motorsport | 15 | 5.900 |
6 | Alessio Lorandi | Jenzer Motorsport | 15 | 7.257 |
7 | Kevin Jörg | Trident | 15 | 8.099 |
8 | Anthoine Hubert | ART Grand Prix | 15 | 8.447 |
9 | Santino Ferrucci | DAMS | 15 | 10.744 |
10 | Marcos Siebert | Campos Racing | 15 | 11.712 |
11 | Raoul Hyman | Campos Racing | 15 | 12.387 |
12 | Leonardo Pulcini | Arden International | 15 | 17.079 |
13 | Ryan Tveter | Trident | 15 | 17.645 |
14 | Bruno Baptista | DAMS | 15 | 22.595 |
15 | Tatiana Calderon | DAMS | 15 | 23.280 |
16 | Nirei Fukuzumi | ART Grand Prix | 15 | 28.539 |
Steijn Schothorst | Arden International | 3 | 12 laps | |
Julien Falchero | Campos Racing | 3 | 12 laps | |
Dorian Boccolacci | Trident | 0 |
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