Another thriller in Spielberg! The Colombian rookie Oscar Tunjo drove the race of his life: from P9 on the grid, to storm through the pack and to snatch the lead from Marvin Kirchhöfer with two laps to go. The Trident star recorded his first win of his GP3 career with Trident taking double-victories this weekend after Ghiotto was on the top step yesterday. ART Grand Prix’s Kirchhöfer and Esteban Ocon completed the rostrum.
It was Jenzer Motorsport’s Ralph Boschung who started from reverse pole with Sandy Stuvik (Status Grand Prix) starting alongside the Swiss rookie. Boschung held P1 away from the line but it was Kirchhöfer who made a stellar start to be challenging the Swiss driver almost instantly as the duo ran alongside each other.
The opening lap saw Carlin and Ferrari Academy Driver’s Antonio Fuoco brake late and make contact with his teammate Jann Mardenborough on the inside. This sent Fuoco slightly airborne with the car landing on Stuvik’s machine: resulting in premature retirements, both drivers were uninjured. The safety car was deployed due to this incident and Mardenborough pitted with damage but he was able to continue. Alfonso Celis. Jr and Alex Palou were also involved in a first lap incident, the pair unable to continue.
Once the safety car came in, Boschung came under big pressure from Kirchhöfer. The German made the move stick with his teammate Ocon following suit, demoting Boschung to third. Ghiotto was next up and after he had overtaken the Jenzer Motorsport driver, he soon reeled in Ocon; looking to repeat his move which took him to victory in yesterday’s race.
At the midway point of the race Tunjo was in fifth in the standings and he was fired up: first he passed Bernstorff for P4 and then he set after Ghiotto and Ocon. Tunjo saw his prey and they had no answer for the Colombian after they were passed as the laps ticked down.
Kirchhöfer who had been controlling the race with a small gap was now all too aware of the fast charging Tunjo in his mirrors and did his best to resist the efforts of the Trident driver. But nothing was going to stop Tunjo: the Colombian made a bold pass on the ART GP star around the outside to march into P1 and once the move was completed, he put his head down and at the chequered flag, he won by over three seconds.
Kirchhöfer who appeared to be struggling with tyre degradation held on for P2, ahead of his teammate Ocon. Ghiotto, Bernstorff, Matheo Tuscher, Seb Morris and Alex Fontana completed the top eight points scoring positions.
Ghiotto remains as Series leader on 64 points after pocketing two bonus points today for the fastest lap. Ocon and Kirchhöfer are on 54 and 47 respectively.
ART Grand Prix leads the way in the Teams’ Standings on 102 points. Trident is chasing the French squad down on 81 points with Carlin in third on 62 points.
Round 3 will take place at Silverstone, United Kingdom on July 03-05..
