GP3: Albon wins opening race in Malaysia

Alexander Albon won the first GP3 race at Sepang as Charles Leclerc maintained his championship lead despite a collision with an ART teammate for the second consecutive race.

At the start, Albon out-dragged polesitter Leclerc on the long run to Turn 1 to claim the lead, as the Ferrari junior driver briefly dropped to third behind fellow ART racer Nick de Vries. Albon maintained the lead through the first corner, while Leclerc slipped back past de Vries on the inside line. Then, on the run down to Turn 4, Leclerc pressed Albon while de Vries closed rapidly as they approached the braking zone.

When the pack arrived at the right-hander, de Vries carried too much speed on the inside line and tagged both of his ART teammates, clattering into Leclerc, who ran wide.

While Albon was able to maintain the lead, de Vries spun and fell to P18 as Leclerc lost out to Arden's Jack Aitken and Jenzer Motorsport's Arjun Maini.

Unlike the incident at Monza, where Leclerc was eliminated in a crash with Nirei Fukuzumi, the Monagasque driver was able to continue and he immediately set about catching Maini, passing the Indian driver with a bold move on the inside of the sweeping Turn 5 on lap two.

Up front, Albon was put under pressure during the early laps by Aitken before the Thai driver edged clear to secure his fourth win of the season. Leclerc spent much of the race adrift of the top two before he closed in on Aitken as the Briton began to struggle with tire degradation.

The championship leader got close enough to attack at Turn 1 on the penultimate lap but had to settle for third as Maini closed back in with a late charge to finish fourth.

Campos Racing's Steijn Schothorst resisted race long pressure from Arden's Jake Dennis to come home fifth, ahead of Fukuzumi and Trident's Antonio Fuoco, who had started the race in second place in the championship but could only climb two places from his starting position and fell behind Albon in the points standings.

Matthew Parry and Sandy Stuvik completed the top ten for Koiranen GP and Trident, as de Vries, who had recovered to eighth place with a series of passes, dropped to 13th in the final standings as the result of a five-second penalty he was given for the first lap collision.

Albon's win means he is now 24 points behind Leclerc in the championship, with Fuoco a further 15 adrift.

Originally on Autosport.com