Arjun becomes first Indian to win a GP3 race as he claims maiden win in Barcelona for Jenzer Motorsport team

[caption id="attachment_5311" align="alignright" width="300"] Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.Sunday 14 May 2017Arjun Maini (IND, Jenzer Motorsport)Photo: Zak Mauger/GP3 Series Media Service[/caption]

Barcelona, 14 May 2017: Ace Indian racer Arjun Maini dominated Sunday morning’s race 2 at the Circuit de Catalunya here, easily grabbing the lead into turn one when the lights went out before leaving his rivals floundering with a mature and impressive sprint all the way to the flag to win by 6 seconds from Dorian Boccolacci and Alessio Lorandi.

The 19-year-old Bengaluru boy was signed by HAAS F1 team as Development Driver last week and is competing in the GP3 series, which is being organised as a support race on the Formula One Sunday.

One of the only two Indian drivers who raced in Formula One, Karun Chandhok tweeted saying A great start to the day,' as Arjun won his race while Haas F1 team too tweeted `Congratulations to our Development Driver, Arjun Maini, winner of Sunday morning's GP3 Series race.''

The victory was set up at the start, which opened under clear but cool conditions with the grid lying in the shadow of the giant front straight stadium: poleman Raoul Hyman made a poor getaway with Boccolacci in P3 making a strong start but being stuck behind the South African, handing Maini a clear run to the first corner. The Frenchman pushed the Indian hard for the lead but Maini was equal to the challenge, while behind them Hyman was looking in his mirrors at the coming menace of the ART threat looming there.

Anthoine Hubert soon disposed of Hyman and was looking to get into the mix of the fight for the lead, but in front of him Maini and Boccolacci were running side by side all around the circuit, which was only resolved when a small touch saw the Frenchman stumble, falling back towards his countryman and allowing the Indian to scamper away.

Further back and Lorandi was on a charge: the Italian was repeating his impressive speed from yesterday’s race to easily dispatch Hyman before focussing on Hubert, easing by the Frenchman at turn 1 with 5 laps to go and was looking towards Boccolacci, although he was running out of time to make a real challenge.

At the flag all the applause was for Maini, who celebrated his new alliance with Haas F1 by bringing home Jenzer’s first win since 2012 and easily dominated his rivals all race long. Boccolacci held off the Lorandi charge to grab P2 by a second, with Hubert joined in the closing stages by teammates George Russell and Nirei Fukuzumi, with Hyman holding on for P7 ahead of Santino Ferrucci in the final points position.

Fukuzumi leads the drivers’ title fight after Round 1 on 29 points ahead of Lorandi on 25, Maini on 21 with Boccolacci, Russell and Hubert all on 20 points ahead of Leonardo Pulcini on 18, while the teams’ fight has ART Grand Prix stake an early lead on 73 points ahead of Jenzer Motorsport on 46, Trident on 20 and Arden International on 18 points ahead of Round 2 of the series at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Race 2 Provisional Classification 

Driver

Team

Gap

Arjun Maini

Jenzer Motorsport

Dorian Boccolacci

Trident

6.060

Alessio Lorandi

Jenzer Motorsport

7.171

Anthoine Hubert

ART Grand Prix

8.268

George Russell

ART Grand Prix

9.335

Nirei Fukuzumi

ART Grand Prix

11.309

Raoul Hyman

Campos Racing

14.085

Santino Ferrucci

DAMS

16.638

Kevin Jörg

Trident

17.813

Julien Falchero

Campos Racing

20.265

Giuliano Alesi

Trident

23.251

Jack Aitken

ART Grand Prix

23.511

Bruno Baptista

DAMS

26.863

Niko Kari

Arden International

27.888

Steijn Schothorst

Arden International

29.709

Marcos Siebert

DAMS

31.093

Leonardo Pulcini

Arden International

66.654

Ryan Tveter

Trident

1 LAP

Not classified

Tatiana Calderon

DAMS