ART Grand Prix’s Charles Leclerc leads home Albon and De Vries in rain affected race
It has been the perfect weekend so far for ART Grand Prix’s Charles Leclerc; the Monegasque driver topped free practice, claimed pole by seven tenths and pocketed his second win of the season, as well as adding the fastest lap for good measure. His teammates’ Alexander Albon and Nyck de Vries completed an all ART-GP rostrum in a race which saw rain fall in the final stages making for very tricky conditions.
From pole; Leclerc was eager to cover off his teammate Albon from the front row but it was the Thai driver who made the better start and Albon was into the lead by Turn 1. Koiranen GP’s Ralph Boschung was up to second and enjoyed a tussle with Leclerc. The Scuderia Ferrari Team development driver was on a mission to reclaim the lead of the race; he found a way past the Swiss driver and then pounced on Albon. Leclerc dived down the inside to re-take the lead from Albon half-way around the opening lap.
There was a T1 incident when DAMS’ Santino Ferrucci was penalised after causing a collision with Arden International’s Jake Dennis. After a hectic opening few laps, Leclerc began to pull away and started posting fastest laps. He built up an early 2s lead over Albon, with De Vries right behind.
The VSC was deployed after Dennis stopped on the start / finish line. At the re-start, Leclerc remained confident and maintained a good margin back to Albon and De Vries. Trident’s Antonio Fuoco was a man on the move as he overtook Jake Hughes for P7 once the VSC had ended.
Meanwhile Leclerc was still finding more pace to set further fastest laps and built up a 6s lead. De Vries was glued to his teammate Albon’s gearbox – just 0.5s separating the two at the midway point.
With six laps to go, rain drops began to fall – and then a heavy deluge of rain came. Leclerc was first to arrive to the wet part of the track at Turn 2 and ran wide, followed by Albon and De Vries doing the same. It was a challenging time for the drivers with wet and dry parts of the track, as the laps ticked down. Fuoco passed Matthew Parry for P5, with Leclerc maintaining a 6s lead.
Fuoco then chased after Jenzer Motorsport’s Oscar Tunjo; the pair enjoying a fun battle. The last few laps were action packed with Tunjo passing Boschung for fourth, as positions changed regularly. Leclerc’s lead came down to 3.5s as the drivers managed the changeable conditions. Tunjo was served the black and orange flag due to his mirror hanging off his car. The Colombian pitted to have this fixed and went back on track to finish P14.
Fuoco and Boschung continued fighting until the flag with the Swiss holding off the Italian’s advances. But it was Leclerc who celebrated his second successive Race 1 win in the category, ahead of his teammates’ Albon and De Vries. Behind the top five were: Parry, Nirei Fukuzumi, Jake Hughes, Jack Aitken and Sandy Stuvik.
Leclerc holds a 17 point lead over Albon in the drivers’ standings with Fuoco in third. ART Grand Prix have top spot in the teams’ standings ahead of DAMS and Trident.
Hughes will start from reverse pole in tomorrow’s 18 lap race which gets underway at 09.15 local time (GMT+2).
