After the longest scheduled break of the 2017 season, GP3 finally returns to a race track this weekend for the second round at the Red Bull Ring.
A gap of 54 days separates Arjun Maini’s maiden win in the Barcelona sprint race and the first practice in Austria.
It is the series’ fourth visit to the track following its return to the Formula 1 calendar in 2014.
Following graduations to the F2 grid, there is a guarantee of drivers winning and stepping onto the podium for the first time this weekend.
Qualifying
If qualifying produces a shock, this year could see a fourth different team in four years claiming pole positions after ART (Charles Leclerc), Trident (Luca Ghiotto) and Carlin (Alex Lynn).
Leclerc’s pole last season set a new record for the series, a 1m19.041s.
This beat his previous fastest lap of 1m19.171s, set during the series’ in-season test in June 2016.
If racers are unable to beat the Monegasque’s best, it will be the first session where these times have not improved since its inclusion on the calendar.
The last two polesitters have found improvements of 1.235s and 0.309s on previous years.
Feature Race (24 laps)
The average gap between the winner and second-place driver in the opening race is 5.671 seconds, with two of the last three races being decided by just over 2s.
Luca Ghiotto’s margin of 11.958s over Antonio Fuoco in 2015 is the largest ever seen in GP3.
This race has often been dominated by one person, with 2015 also involving the only race with a change for the lead.
On average, 20 racers are classified in the event, with just five retirements in the last two seasons.
Sprint Race (18 laps)
In the second race of the weekend, the victor has an average margin of 3.889s over the runner-up.
The largest gap was in 2014 when Emil Bernstorff won by 7.793s over Jimmy Eriksson. Ralph Boschung’s triumph 12 months’ ago was the slimmest at just 0.841s.
Each race has had at least two competitors fighting for the lead, with the highest amount of leaders being three from 2015.
An average of 17 drivers have completed this part of the event, with last year’s wet event having just 14 classified.
Past Champions
With the race appearing as the second contest on the calendar, it still plays a part in predicting who might be targeting a title victory.
Every competitor who has claimed a feature win at the circuit has gone onto battle for the title.
There is a 100% record of a racer finishing on the weekend’s first podium going onto becoming champion, with a 66% strike rate of this winner being crowned in November.
Esteban Ocon is the anomaly of the latter stat, racing to third in 2015 before being crowned later in the season.
Action begins with practice on Friday at 4.50pm
