Feature Race report

Antonio Fuoco moves up to second place in the driver standings

Antonio Fuoco delivered a convincing performance today by scoring fourth place in the Feature Race held at the Spa-Francorchamps venue, home of the sixth round of the 2016 GP3 Series. The Italian repeated the fourth place achieved in qualifying and continued to fight his way towards the championship lead as he now stands second in the driver standings.

The Cosenza-based racer started with the same tires used in qualifying and, due to the a slight performance drop in the closing stages, could not defend the third place he maintained for the whole race. He finished fourth and will start from P5 in the Sprint Race.

Giuliano Alesi posted a remarkable recovery. He improved his position up to the 10th place to grab his first points finish in the series. Unfortunately, Sandy Stuvik was involved in a contact at the first corner that damaged one of his suspensions. Artur Janosz lost ground in the melee caused by a multiple contact at the first corner. In an outstanding recovery, he fought back from 18th to 13th.

Sprint Race reportAntonio Fuoco scored a brilliant second place finish in Spa. By pulling off a good recovery, the Italian continued to reduce his gap to the championship lead.

Antonio Fuoco continued in his march towards the front of the GP3 Series championship standings in Belgium. After cruising to the runner-up spot in points with a fourth place in race 1, the Italian put together a brilliant recovery on Sunday, fighting back to second place from the fifth position on the grid. The gap from current leader Leclerc has now dropped down to 22 points, a recoverable amount in the last three rounds of the year. “We did a great job this weekend,” said Fuoco, “I got back to the second place in points and, especially in the Sprint Race, we had a really convincing pace. We did the best we could but now we have to focus on Monza. I want to push as hard as I can to be at the front from qualifying. Although I don’t want to make calculations, I feel like I’m fully in championship hunt. We now have to face the last three rounds one at the time”.

Artur Janosz scored a positive nineth position. He showed good tire wear management skills and also good chemistry with the race dynamics, working in collaboration with the pit wall. After scoring his first point of the year, Giuliano Alesi was slowed down by traffic and finished in P14 while Sandy Stuvik faced tyre degradation issues, having to come back to the pits.