Anthoine Hubert wins GP3 title

Anthoine Hubert, Silverstone 2018

Anthoine Hubert was crowned 2018 GP3 champion after the Abu Dhabi feature race.

Yas Marina feature race review

Hubert headed into the final round with 32 points over his team mate Nikita Mazepin: the Russian rookie started the weekend off by recovering four points by taking pole position. Nonetheless, the Frenchman’s advantage was reassuring with a maximum of 44 points still on offer. Hubert lined up third behind Pulcini, and with that order he’d be crowned champion as long as Mazepin didn’t score fastest lap. In the first laps Pulcini took the lead off Mazepin, who stayed right behind him and re-claimed the top position on lap 5. The Italian put pressure on the Russian who ran wide and let his rival through again. In the process, Mazepin received a ten-second time penalty for cutting the track and gaining an advantage.

At that point Mazepin had nothing he could do. He crossed the line second behind Pulcini, who took his second win of the season, but dropped to fifth after the penalty, while Hubert’s third place, behind Beckmann, granted him the last GP3 title on offer.

Season review

The first outing of 2018 showed us what to expect: ART completed the podium in Catalunya with Mazepin taking a début win ahead of Hubert and fellow rookie Ilott. At Paul Ricard Hubert and Ilott shared the top step od the podium, while at the Red Bull Ring it was Ilott’s and Hughes’ turn, the latter with his only win of the season. At Silverstone Hubert led Mazepin and Ilott, while the sprint race saw an all-Trident rostrum. At the Hungaroring Mazepin won the feature race but didn’t score in the sprint race, while Hubert scored third in both races. Boccolacci won the sprint race, his last GP3 appearance before being promoted to F2.

After the summer break Beckmann, who replaced Lorandi at Trident, was the man on the charge by taking two consecutive feature race wins from pole. Mazepin won the sprint race, but Hubert was once again more consistent with two podiums. In Monza, Hubert was second while Mazepin was fifth, then in the sprint race he got disqualified from 4th, along with Ilott from 3rd, promoting Mazepin to the podium. At Sochi, Mazepin finished just ahead of Hubert in the Saturday race but the Russian scored no points on Sunday, with Hubert’s fourth place – relatively low for his standards – suddenly meant a lot for his title hopes. At the final feature race Mazepin, under pressure, took up a penalty which demoted him to fifth, while Hubert could celebrate the title with one more podium. The Frenchman scored secen podiums in nine consecutive races, and while he had one win less than his team mate, his consistency in his second GP3 season proved to be the crucial factor.