Melville McKee scored his and Bamboo Engineering’s first-ever GP3 Series victory at the Nurburgring.

Front row starter McKee grabbed the lead at the start from polesitter Alexander Sims (Status), the latter losing second when Carlin’s Nick Yelloly drove around the outside of him at Turn 2.

McKee pulled out a 2.5-second lead by the end of lap three, but the chasing Yelloly closed the gap down to 1.1sec four laps later. But it was Sims who was the real threat, passing Yelloly with an audacious pass down the inside at Turn 3. He closed in on McKee in the final stages, but just could not find a way around him.

McKee is the eighth winner from eight races this year, and had previously never finished in the top 10 before this weekend. Yelloly dropped to a distant third, well clear of McKee’s teammate Lewis Williamson.

Carlos Sainz escaped a first-corner clash with Jack Harvey to finish fifth, ahead of points leader Tio Ellinas, who benefitted from a mistake from Manor team-mate Dino Zamparelli on lap three.

Patric Niederhauser grabbed the final point, when Conor Daly ran wide at Turn 3 on the final lap and fell to ninth.

Ellinas stretches his points lead as Saturday’s race winner Facu Regalia could not get a gear off the dummy grid and started from the pitlane. He was an early retirement.

Results - 15 laps:Pos  Driver               Team        Time/Gap 1.  Melville McKee       Bamboo    27m23.992s 2.  Alexander Sims       Status       +0.353s 3.  Nick Yelloly         Carlin       +3.506s 4.  Lewis Williamson     Bamboo       +5.273s 5.  Carlos Sainz Jr.     MW Arden     +9.781s 6.  Tio Ellinas          Manor       +12.686s 7.  Dino Zamparelli      Manor       +15.382s 8.  Patric Niederhauser  Jenzer      +16.023s 9.  Conor Daly           ART         +17.176s10.  Jack Harvey          ART         +19.390s11.  Aaro Vainio          Koiranen    +24.437s12.  Emanuele Zonzini     Trident     +26.696s13.  Patrick Kujala       Koiranen    +28.519s14.  Giovanni Venturini   Trident     +30.269s15.  Kevin Korjus         Koiranen    +30.613s16.  Daniil Kvyat         MW Arden    +30.818s17.  Alex Fontana         Jenzer      +31.247s18.  Jimmy Eriksson       Status      +33.008s19.  Samin Gomez          Jenzer      +34.547s20.  David Fumanelli      Trident     +34.698s21.  Eric Lichtenstein    Carlin      +35.383s22.  Luis Sa Silva        Carlin      +38.946s23.  Robert Visoiu        MW Arden    +39.132s24.  Carmen Jorda         Bamboo    +1m02.686s25.  Ryan Cullen          Manor     +1m22.545sRetirements:    Josh Webster         Status       11 laps    Facu Regalia         ART           8 laps