Da Costa wins GP3 Hungaroring opener

Antonio Felix da Costa led round 11 of the GP3 Series from start to finish at the Hungaroring on Saturday evening to score his second victory of the season, and the third of his career, for Carlin.

There was huge drama on the opening half lap of the race, as poleman Aaro Vainio (Lotus) made a terrible start, while his title rival Mitch Evans (MW Arden) made a blinder from the second row. Despite weaving at Evans, which put him on the grass, Vainio could do nothing to stop the Kiwi coming past him, who then took the fight to leader da Costa.

Although the Portuguese man had made a decent getaway, Evans tried to go around his outside at Turn 1, only to run wide and allow Daniel Abt and Vainio back past him. But Evans wasn’t done yet, and passed both Lotus cars at Turn 3, before Abt lunged down his inside to grab second position back a few corners later.

As da Costa pulled well clear of the battling Abt and Evans, Vainio lost fourth to Kevin Ceccon on lap two. Abt survived a lurid slide at the exit of the high-speed turn 4 while keeping Evans at arm’s length, and they filled the podium positions behind da Costa. That extended Evans’s championship lead over Vainio, who will be gutted with the result as he’d previously topped both practice and qualifying.

Ceccon held off Vainio for fourth, with Conor Daly, Matias Laine, David Fumanelli, Marlon Stockinger and Lewis Williamson rounding out the point scorers.

Da Costa was never challenged up front, apart from the first corner side-by-side with Evans, and even found time to set a new lap record on the way to the Carlin squad’s second victory of the day. He won by 4.4s.

Results – 16 laps:

 Pos  Driver               Team              Time/Gap
  1.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Carlin       26m33.107s
  2.  Daniel Abt              Lotus          + 4.410s
  3.  Mitch Evans             MW Arden       + 4.747s
  4.  Kevin Ceccon            Ocean          + 8.674s
  5.  Aaro Vainio             Lotus          + 9.681s
  6.  Conor Daly              Lotus         + 10.404s
  7.  Matias Laine            MW Arden      + 11.025s
  8.  David Fumanelli         MW Arden      + 12.928s
  9.  Marlon Stockinger       Status        + 13.338s
 10.  Lewis Williamson        Status        + 14.257s
 11.  Giovanni Venturini      Trident       + 17.448s
 12.  Robert Visoiu           Jenzer        + 18.531s
 13.  Tio Ellinas             Manor         + 20.984s
 14.  Tamas Pal Kiss          Atech CRS     + 21.482s
 15.  Alex Brundle            Carlin        + 23.338s
 16.  Patric Niederhauser     Jenzer        + 24.770s
 17.  Alex Fontana            Jenzer        + 28.400s
 18.  Facu Regalia            Atech CRS     + 32.508s
 19.  Alice Powell            Status        + 32.988s
 20.  Vicky Piria             Trident       + 41.678s
 21.  Robert Cregan           Ocean         + 44.872s
 22.  Ethan Ringel            Atech CRS     + 48.844s
 23.  Will Buller             Carlin      + 1m30.888s
 24.  Carmen Jorda            Ocean           + 1 lap
 
Retirements:
 
     Dmitry Suranovich       Manor           3 laps
      Fabiano Machado         Manor           0 laps
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/da-costa-wins-gp3-hungaroring-opener

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