Stoneman dominates Sochi GP3 opener

Dean Stoneman scored his fourth GP3 victory of the season in the first international-level race to be held at the new Sochi Autodrom in Russia on Saturday.

Stoneman led from lights to flag in his first race for the Koiranen GP team, taking over the car regularly used by tailender Carmen Jorda and continuing his domination of the weekend after starting from pole position. He was helped at the start when fellow front row starter Alex Fontana made a poor getaway, allowing his ART teammates Marvin Kirchhoffer and Dino Zamparelli to battle out second place through the opening corners.

Kirchoffer appeared to gain a huge advantage by straightlining Turn 3, putting him right on Stoneman's tail, while Zamparelli made a poor exit and was swamped by the field, losing further places when he ran very wide at Turn 13.

Stoneman was already a second clear ahead of Kirchoffer at the end of the opening lap, and was 4.2sec ahead on the penultimate tour before cruising to a 1.8sec victory. Fontana recovered to third, just losing out in a fastest-lap duel with Stoneman.

Jimmy Eriksson finished fourth for Koiranen, enough to elevate him above Richie Stanaway to second in points, well clear of Kevin Ceccon and Jann Mardenborough.

Title favorite Alex Lynn scored a subdued but important seventh place, which consolidated his points lead and puts him on the front row for the reversed-grid race two on Sunday, when he is likely to wrap up the crown. His formerly closest rival Stanaway was forced to start from the pitlane after failing to bring his car to the FIA weighbridge before his team worked on it in qualifying.

Stanaway surged to 12th, after making strong progress early on, but failed to score any points and will start 10 places further back from Lynn on Sunday.

Arden's Patric Niederhauser will start Sunday's race from pole after finishing eighth.

Zamparelli trailed home 18th after being given a drive-through penalty for a clash with fellow Brit Emil Bernstorff, which put the Carlin man out of the race with broken suspension.

RESULTS - 15 LAPS: