Antonio Felix da Costa Cruises To Dominant GP3 Victory At Budapest

Portuguese driver Antonio Felix da Costa has cruised almost effortlessly to his third career victory in the GP3 Series, after taking the lead away from pole man Aaro Vainio at the start. The Carlin driver was followed home by the Lotus of Daniel Abt, with Championship leader Mitch Evans closely following the German home in 3rd.

At the start, Aaro Vainio suffered a disastrous getaway off the line, dropping like a lead balloon back to 4th as the likes of Antonio Felix da Costa, Daniel Abt and Mitch Evans stormed around the ailing Finn. Towards the end of the opening lap, William Buller and Tio Ellinas lightly came together, as the pair negotiated the tricky turn 13.

By the end of the second lap, William Buller and Dmitry Suranovich elected to pit, with the latter eventually retiring several laps later upon returning to the pits. Mitch Evans began to pile immense amounts of pressure upon the Lotus of Daniel Abt as the race progressed, however the German denied the Championship leader the opportunity to overtake.

Aaro Vainio’s race then took yet another slump, as Kevin Ceccon found a way around the Finnish driver. After such a dominant performance during both practice and qualifying, the opening race of the weekend will undoubtedly have been a big disappointment for the Finn and Lotus GP.

Whilst Vainio frantically tried to pass Kevin Ceccon, and Mitch Evans tried to pressurize Daniel Abt into a mistake, Antonio Felix da Costa stormed into the distance to secure an exceedingly dominant race victory for Carlin. David Fumanelli will start tomorrow’s second race from the reverse grid pole, after the Italian driver finished this afternoon’s race in 8th position.