The final stages of today’s GP3 Series race in Barcelona provided some exciting racing action as the 2015 season got underway at the Circuit de Catalunya. A longer race and softer tyre compound made it a race of resilience which both Jann Mardenborough and Antonio Fuoco took full advantage of. Mardenborough stormed through the field in the final stages to take fourth, while Fuoco came from the back of the field to take eighth and tomorrow’s reverse grid pole, despite starting from the back of the field. Mitch Gilbert retired after showing strong pace in the early stages.

After a strong practice session yesterday afternoon, the Carlin drivers were disappointed with today’s qualifying which saw Gilbert start as the front Carlin runner in 11th place. The Australian made up one place at the start to move up to tenth while team mate Mardenborough was 12th and Fuoco 21st.

After losing a position, Gilbert was on the move again, passing Tunjo for 10th with Mardenborough attempting to follow him through. Gilbert was on a charge though, passing Varhaug for ninth place on lap eight.

With tyre wear now more key than ever in the GP3 Series, Gilbert began to suffer, which allowed Mardenborough to get through into ninth place on lap 11, just before the first and only safety car of the race was deployed.  As the racing action was neutralised, Mardenborough was ninth, Gilbert 10th and Fuoco 16th at the half way point.

As the racing got underway once again Mardenborough wasted no time, and was eighth after passing Palou on lap 16. The Nissan driver soon closed in on seventh placed man Jimmy Eriksson and passed him on lap 19. Seemingly with his tyres in better condition, Mardenborough was reeling in the drivers ahead, with Kirchhofer next in his sights. Having despatched Kirchhofer, Mardenborough made up two further places in as many corners to take fourth place.

Behind him, team mate Fuoco was having a similar end to his race – making up one position after another after biding his time and looking after his Pirelli tyres. Having made it into the top ten from 21st on the grid, Fuoco was still on a charge and managed to climb to eighth before the chequered flag fell. The Ferrari Academy driver will now start tomorrow’s reverse grid race from pole.

It was a race of opposite fortunes for Gilbert though after such promising pace in the early stages, the Carlin man saw his tyres drop away to such an extent that he was forced to retired just a lap before the end.

Fourth placed man Mardenborough said, “I made a good start, I gained about four positions I think, my aim was to make up as many positions as possible at the start and then back off and stay out of the dirty air and save the tyres. In the middle of the race I could probably have pushed a bit harder, but after three quarters of the race after the safety car came in everyone was falling away and I had better tyres and was able to have some fun. It was a good recovery; we had a plan after a disappointing qualifying session and with the races now 10 minutes longer the tyres are even more important. Starting from fifth tomorrow a podium would be the obvious aim.”

Team mate Fuoco added, “This morning was a big disaster so we planned to bide our time in the race and push at the end. We had good pace in the race and I was able to really push hard at the end and make up lots of positions. Tomorrow I think we start P1 and I’m feeling confident about that.”