Hubert back on top in GP3
GP3 SERIES SILVERSTONE (GB) JULY 7-8 ROUND 4/9
Anthoine Hubert’s rebound at Silverstone was almost perfect. The previous weekend in Austria, the Frenchman and ART Grand Prix team-mate Nikita Mazepin had crashed into each other. At Silverstone, as if to continue the narrative, Hubert took a vital pole position with Mazepin directly behind.
These things have the capability to develop into brutal and fierce rivalries. But for fans of such theatrics, the actual tone was a lot more mellow between the pair.
“I know he is clever, I think he knows I am clever as well,” said Hubert. “We were starting side by side today; I knew it was going to be a hard fight but I knew the incident that happened last week has passed.”
Mazepin added: “Obviously we discussed what happened and we came to the conclusion that it was a racing incident. I had no intention of clipping Anthoine, especially as we were fighting for P9 and not a win.”
With that settled, Hubert’s focus was on denying Callum Ilott of his newly found points lead. It wouldn’t be easy at the Ferrari Academy driver’s home event, and in a sister ART car no less, and Ilott took fourth on the grid to keep the pressure on.
But there was extra motivation for Hubert. He’s the highest-placed driver in last year’s standings returning in 2018, but he was still seeking his first on-the-road race victory (his win at Paul Ricard came after Dorian Boccolacci’s exclusion).
Finally, at Silverstone, Hubert delivered on his potential and scored a first win. “I still did not feel like I had a win even after Le Castellet,” he said. “It was really important for me, not just scoring points or times on the timesheet, to finish as a winner at the end and get out and jump onto your car. It’s about the feeling, and it felt really good to win. I really love this track and it was amazing.”
In the end, the victory hinged on two key laps – seven and eight of the 20 – after two virtual safety cars and a full safety car. As the full safety car came in it would be vital to extend a one-second gap before DRS was enabled. Both Hubert’s subsequent laps were race-toppers at that point, and they built the gap that was key to the win.
While Mazepin was an easy second, Ilott fought his way onto the podium as thirdplace qualifier Giuliano Alesi fell like a brick. Alesi struggled for pace early on and even slipped out of the top 10 at one point, before driving back to eighth to take the reversed-grid pole. The key winner from Alesi’s trouble was his Trident team-mate Ryan Tveter, whose pace has been improving in recent rounds, and the American took fourth ahead of Boccolacci.
The sprint race was at least cause for optimism for Alesi, but he was mugged off the line once more, this time by Pedro Piquet, and this preceded a battle royal ready to take Formula 1 fans back almost 30 years. The pair even have the same helmet designs as their fathers.
Piquet has “turned from a boy into a man” this season according to his father, threetime F1 champion Nelson, and the European F3 graduate scored his first win in a Trident 1-2-3. He had to sustain heavy pressure throughout from Alesi and Tveter, and all three were almost certainly extremely lucky as a late VSC robbed Hubert and Ilott of a shot at the podium. Both had saved DRS (four uses per sprint race), while the top three had none left and tyres in worse condition.
“You need to drive every lap on the limit when you are in front,” said Piquet. “I think
it was a really good race – the lap times were really constant.”
Hubert now sits firmly atop the standings with a six-point cushion over Ilott. A pair of sixths at Silverstone was enough for Campos Racing’s Leonardo Pulcini to keep him ahead of Mazepin for third in the standings, Italian Pulcini a real candidate for most improved driver this season.
One man absent from the top of the standings is fourth ART driver Jake Hughes. After tyre trouble at Barcelona and a coming-together at Paul Ricard, Austria seemed to be the catalyst for change, with a fifth and a win. But a battery breakage in the feature race at Silverstone ruined his weekend, although an epic drive from 16th to eighth on Sunday yielded a single point.
Of his title chances, Hughes said: “Too much has happened to us in the first few weekends. If we have the complete opposite in the second half of the year then maybe, but it’s unrealistic to think you can win every single race. They [rivals] have to drop points and I have to win races, which is entirely possible, but you can’t expect it.”
Hubert appears to have bouncebackability at the top of the table, and Ilott and
Mazepin have shown they are capable of strong weekends. GP3 is in for a close battle with five rounds still to go.