Smith finishes fourth in first GP3 race

08 May 2010

Carlin's Dean Smith took a strong fourth place in the first ever GP3 race today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner made a strong getaway and avoided a start line incident to race to a fourth place finish. Lucas Foresti meanwhile made lightning progress from his 14th place grid slot to finish seventh. Josef Newgarden suffered a disappointing race on his GP3 debut when contact with another car put him into retirement on lap seven.

As the lights went out for the first ever GP3 race, all cars made it off the grid, but a spin by fourth placed man Daniel Morad created an obstacle for the front running cars as they attempted to avoid his car in the middle of the track. Smith was one of the first to come across the accident and had to take avoiding action along with the cars around him. Contact on his rear wheel nearly put the Formula Renault 2.0 UK champion out of the race, but the British racer managed to continue despite damage to his car.

Newgarden meanwhile made a great start and was initially up to seventh place but by the end of lap one had dropped back to 10th place after hitting a high kerb and making contact with another car. The young American was the innocent victim of another driver's incident on lap 10, when Pablo Sanchez Lopez out-braked himself into the hairpin and spurred Newgarden off the track.

Towards the front, the first five cars had broken away from the rest of the pack, with Smith sandwiched between Esteban Gutierrez and Jean-Eric Vergne. As the race progressed, Smith managed to pull away from Vergne and ran a controlled race in fourth place to take his first five points in the series.

Foresti meanwhile was still holding onto seventh place but came under attached from Alexander Rossi half way through the race. The 17 year-old Brazilian held firm though - lap after lap to maintain his position and take a fantastic seventh place and two precious points in his first ever GP3 race.

The grid for race two tomorrow will be set by the finishing order from today's race with the top eight revered. Consequently, Foresti will line up on the front row of the grid in second place while Smith will start fifth. Following his retirement from the race and a grid penalty for a first lap incident, Newgarden will have to take his place at the back of the grid.

Speaking about his fourth place, Smith said, "I'm pretty pleased with that result, but I'm frustrated not to finish on the podium. I think the podium was definitely a possibility but it was so messy at the start I had to take avoiding action and to be honest was lucky not to get taken out. We all had to avoid [Daniel] Morad and someone made contact with me which damaged my rear right wheel. Having looked at the tyre since I was incredibly lucky not to suffer a puncture. We've got a good starting position from fifth for race two; I finished fourth from sixth on the grid today, so I'll be aiming for the podium tomorrow."

Trevor Carlin added, "Dean did a great job today, he drove a very solid and mature race and I'm expecting something similar from him tomorrow. Lucas did a fantastic job to defend his position and hold onto seventh place and thoroughly deserves his front row grid slot tomorrow. It's a shame that Josef lost out but he's shown great speed and potential so far this weekend so I'm very confident we are going to see good things from him this season."