GP3 Hot News

GP3: Valtteri Bottas storms to Victory at the Ring

Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas took his maiden GP3 Series win at Nürburgring today after a strong start from sixth put him into the lead by the end of Lap 1. The Lotus ART man finished 1.473 seconds ahead of Status Grand Prix’s Alexander Sims and RSC Mücke Motorsport’s Nigel Melker who claimed a home race podium for his German team.

When the lights went out for the start of a wet Race 2, Tech 1 Racing’s Tamas Pal Kiss and Aaro Vainio held onto the top two spots, with the Lotus ART duo of Bottas and James Calado making headway into third and fourth – despite pulling away well from third Conor Daly ran wide at Turn 1, and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was beaten off the line.

As the drivers continued to grapple for position Vainio and Calado came to blows, with the ART man dropping down to the back of the field – Vainio was later handed a drive through penalty for the incident. With Vainio no longer a threat, Bottas made his move on Pal Kiss to take the lead of the race, and Sims capitalized on the chaos to move up into second behind the Finn. Pal Kiss soon lost a further spot to Melker who had worked his way from tenth on the grid.

Sims then set his sights on the leader who was pulling away at the front, and posted consecutive fastest laps to reel in the Finn. With the three podium men chasing each other down at the front, the battle was on for the final three points paying positions. Calado was working on damage limitation, and put in a dogged drive to take the all important final point.

With the checkered flag in sight, Sims had reduced the gap to Bottas to just over a second, but found himself defending from a charging Melker on the last lap. And so Bottas took his first GP3 win to become the tenth victor of the season. Sims held on to second and Melker settled for third after running wide on the last lap. Pal Kiss and Dillmann crossed the line in fourth and fifth respectively, with Calado close behind in sixth.

Sims is now leading the Series by six points ahead of the MW Arden duo of Lewis Williamson and Mitch Evans. MW Arden is leading the teams’ standings by five points ahead Lotus ART who have moved up into second.

Race 2 results:

Pos. No. DRIVER NAT TEAM LAPS TIME GAP
1 2 V. BOTTAS FIN Lotus ART 14 30:25.297 0.000s
2 4 A. SIMS GBR Status Grand Prix 14 30:26.770 1.473
3 31 N. MELKER NED RSC Mucke Motorsport 14 30:28.014 2.717
4 19 T. PAL KISS HUN Tech 1 Racing 14 30:46.847 21.550
5 23 T. DILLMANN FRA Addax Team 14 30:49.676 24.379
6 3 J. CALADO GBR Lotus ART 14 30:57.875 32.578
7 7 N. MULLER SUI Jenzer Motorsport 14 30:59.370 34.073
8 14 C. DALY USA Carlin 14 31:04.552 39.255
9 21 N. YELLOLY GBR Atech CRS GP 14 31:09.848 44.551
10 11 R. HARYANTO INA Marussia Manor Racing 14 31:12.195 46.898
11 9 V. GHIRELLI ITA Jenzer Motorsport 14 31:14.444 49.147
12 30 M. CHRISTENSEN DEN RSC Mucke Motorsport 14 31:16.264 50.967
13 17 A. VAINIO FIN Tech 1 Racing 14 31:16.541 51.244
14 28 L. WILLIAMSON GBR MW Arden 14 31:19.351 54.054
15 8 M. ZIMIN RUS Jenzer Motorsport 14 31:22.261 56.964
16 27 S. TRUMMER SUI MW Arden 14 31:24.521 59.224
17 24 G. CHAVES COL Addax Team 14 31:25.965 60.668
18 6 I. LUKASHEVICH RUS Status Grand Prix 14 31:29.258 63.961
19 16 L. CORDEIRO BRA Carlin 14 31:36.357 71.060
20 22 Z. AMBERG SUI Atech CRS GP 14 31:43.859 78.562
21 15 C. MACLEOD GBR Carlin 14 31:43.944 78.647
22 26 M. EVANS NZL MW Arden 14 32:07.505 102.208
23 12 M. LAINE FIN Marussia Manor Racing 14 32:29.729 124.432
24 18 T. HYLKEMA NED Tech 1 Racing 13 29:45.742 DNF
25 29 L. BACHETA GBR RSC Mucke Motorsport 13 31:51.931 1 LAP
26 1 P. NUNES BRA Lotus ART 11 24:58.248 DNF
27 5 A. FELIX DA COSTA POR Status Grand Prix 7 18:05.482 DNF
28 10 A. QUAIFE-HOBBS GBR Marussia Manor Racing 5 11:13.616 DNF
29 25 D. SMITH GBR Addax Team 1 2:25.907 DNF
30 20 M. STOCKINGER PHI Atech CRS GP 0 – DNS
FL . N. MELKER NED RSC Mucke Motorsport . 2:07.892 LAP 12