Arden International’s Jake Dennis has claimed his second win in the GP3 Series after comfortably leading all 14 laps of the Malaysia sprint race.
Dennis finished ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Nirei Fukuzumi and Arden teammate Jack Aitken in a race where two of the three championship challengers had difficult moments.
ART’s Alex Albon only scored one point and Trident’s Antonio Fuoco retired as ART’s Charles Leclerc extended his championship lead.
Drama had already struck one driver before the opening lap as DAMS’ Santino Ferrucci clearly had some car problems and started from the pit lane behind Trident’s Artur Janosz.
The American driver stood outside of his car with his hands behind his head, with his seat temporarily out of the car, before the race.
When the race did get underway, Dennis, who started in the top three of the grid, found himself in the lead during the first lap.
Polesitter Fuoco immediately got away well to take the lead with Fukuzumi getting into his slipstream down the start-finish straight. There were many lock-ups at the first turn of the race, with Fuoco off the track at turn two and slightly airborne after jumping over the grass. He fell down to third as Dennis took the lead with Fukuzumi in second.
ART Grand Prix teammates Leclerc and Alex Albon were side-by-side down the straight with both drivers avoiding contact.
Aitken quickly moved into third past Fuoco, after getting a good run out of the final corner of the first lap to pass at turn one of lap two.
DAMS’ Jake Hughes involved in drama for the second successive race with Campos Racing’ Alex Palou, with the two drivers under investigation by the stewards. No further action was taken.
The British driver quickly began stretching a lead, including setting the then-fastest lap of the race on lap four as the race immediately became calm after a manic start.
Campos Racing’s Steijn Schothorst and Leclerc fought for P6 at Turns 10 and 11 on lap two with the Monegasque driver quickly getting past Schothorst shortly after.
As the laps went on the race became worse and worse for Fuoco. The Italian again massively locked up at turn one on the fifth lap to fall behind Koiranen GP’s Matt Parry in fifth. Leclerc and Fuoco then fought for fifth place and the Italian held on just after fighting midway through their fifth lap.
Leclerc then managed to find a way past at Fuoco’s weak point at the first turn on the following lap. Other battling ensued behind the pair as Schothorst fought ART’s Nyck de Vries and Jenzer Motorsport’s Arjun Maini to try and maintain his position of seventh.
As Leclerc moved into the top five, the championship leader’s rivals were in the wars. Albon was stuck behind Jenzer’s Alessio Lorandi in 11th and simply couldn’t find a way past for some time. He finally got past the Italian for what became ninth place on the tenth lap.
De Vries quickly got past his Dutch compatriot before he was gifted another position as Fuoco suffered another massive lock-up at the first corner on the seventh lap. Maini and Schothorst quickly also got past the Italian as he came into the pit lane on the next lap to change his abused tyres.
In the fight for the podium positions, Aitken was catching Fukuzumi in the fight for second at the end of their eighth lap, remaining around half a second behind the Japanese driver.
Few amounts of action ensued after this as Dennis saw the chequered flag and take victory by a margin of 3.4s. Fukuzumi extended his gap to Aitken to 2.2s by the end.
Parry remained in fourth ahead of the ART duo of Leclerc and Nyck de Vries. Jenzer Motorsport’s Arjun Maini and ART’s Albon were the final two points-scorers.
Jenzer’s Alessio Lorandi finished just one position away from a first GP3 point for the second successive race in ninth as Schothorst completed the top ten after falling behind both Albon and Lorandi.
DAMS’ Kevin Joerg and Jake Hughes ended the race ahead of Trident’s Giuliano Alesi and Koiranen’s Matevos Isaakyan.
Arden’s Tatiana Calderon recovered from being the last driver on the grid for a 15th place finish ahead of Trident’s Artur Janosz, who finished in 16th despite starting from the pit lane.
Campos’ Konstantin Tereschenko, Jenzer’s Akash Nandy, Campos’ Alex Palou and Trident’s Sandy Stuvik were the other four classified finishers.
Palou lost time as he ran wide and into the gravel at Turn 11 as the lap count went into double figures. He quickly got to the grass strip between the gravel and the barrier.
There were two retirements from the race. Fuoco came into the pit lane on the 12th lap to jump out of his car after a disappointing race, while Ferrucci retired on the fifth lap, with his car parked in the grass off track.
In the Drivers’ Championship, Charles Leclerc moved onto 202 points and extended his lead to 29 points over Albon. Fuoco lost further ground to Leclerc, moving 45 points behind the Monegasque driver.
With a win and fastest lap, Dennis moves up into fourth in the championship on 121 points, four ahead of teammate Aitken and 13 ahead of de Vries. Each of these six drivers are still in the fight for the title, with a maximum of 103 points available in the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
ART move onto a total of 539 points in the Constructors’ Championship, leading Arden by 299 points. Arden extend their lead over third-placed Trident to 70 points.
The results of the race have set up interesting possibilities ahead of the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi on November 25-27.
