GP3: Ferrari junior Leclerc dominates opener

Ferrari protege Charles Leclerc utterly dominated the opening race of GP3's new era for champion team ART Grand Prix.

Leclerc, who made his Formula 1 test debut in a 2014 Ferrari at Fiorano earlier this week in preparation for grand prix practice outings with Haas later this year, blasted past DAMS' front-row pair Jake Hughes and Kevin Jorg at the start. There was no stopping Leclerc thereafter, as he stormed away into a five-second lead.

Hughes held second to the flag ahead of Leclerc's teammate Nirei Fukuzumi – the Honda junior achieving a podium finish in his first car race outside Japan.

Leclerc's fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member Antonio Fuoco profited from an assertive first lap to beat Jorg to fourth.

Although increasing the amount of overtaking was one of the aims of the all-new GP3 car, action was sparse in the first race of the season.

Alexander Albon managed to dive past Jorg into the Turn 10 hairpin but ran wide and spent the rest of the race sat behind him.

Similarly Oscar Tunjo could not make any of his attempts to pass Jake Dennis for seventh work, though eighth earns him pole for Sunday's event.

Matt Parry quickly got up to 12th from 17th on the grid, then could make no further progress.

Last year's Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and ALPS champion Jack Aitken stalled on the grid and could only recover to 20th.

Originally on Autosport.com