GP3: Valtteri Bottas storms to Victory at the Ring

Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas took his maiden GP3 Series win at NÃ¼rburgring 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 MÃ¼cke 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