Nikita Mazepin leads a race dominated by the ART drivers

Leonardo Pulcini’s mission was as simple as doing a good start and keep the position. He had a good chance of doing a good race and to finish on the podium options or even get a victory. But before, after the warm up lap, Laaksonen had to start from the pit lane because his team forgot to take out the air coolers of his single-seater. Moreover, at the start Niko Kari had to retire because he stalled the engine.

Pulcini had a very poor start and was overtaken by the 3 ART drivers that were behind him, while Nikita Mazepin climbed up to P4. The Russsian driver set the pace and gained a distance of a second and a half. From behind, Illot and Hubert were fighting, but the Brit would soon steal P2 from the Frenchman.

The attacks or attempts in order to win a position came from everywhere and Tatiana Calderón wanted to improve her discreet P14, but it was very hard. On the other hand, Jake Hughes tried to regain positions after his bad qualifying and he did so by getting P8 behind Giuliano Alesi.

Halfway through the race, Tatiana Calderón had to stop on the pit lane with problems in her Jenzer, finishing a horrible race for her. Tomorrow she will need to recover from the back if she wants to score any points. At the end of the race, the bad tire management of some drivers was obvious; one of them was Alessio Lorandi, who wanted to overtake one of the Trident drivers at the end of the straight line but finished out of track and losing some positions.

At the end, Mazepin and Hubert were exchanging the fastest lap. In fact, the Renault French driver regained the position to Illot. The first race in Barcelona finished with Mazepin on top. Juan Manuel Correa finished on P8, but tomorrow he will start from the pole, which will be his great opportunity to score points.