Australian Joey Mawson finished on the podium at the penultimate round of the 2018 GP3 Series in Russia on Sunday.
The PODIUM-backed driver showed impressive poise and speed to lead the field for the majority of the 15-lap encounter before securing a career-high second placing.
After finishing eighth in the opening race of the weekend on Saturday, Mawson started on pole position for Sunday’s race. He led the field away from the start and immediately opened a gap over his nearest rivals.
Mid-way through the race David Beckman closed in on Mawson to challenge for the lead, however, the Australian was resilient and held on to the lead. He then slowly edged away to extend his buffer out to 1.2 seconds.
When Nikita Mazepin crashed into the wall at turn 13 it brought about a Virtual Safety Car, under which Beckman closed the gap between himself and Mawson to several car lengths.
After Mazepin’s car was cleared from the line of fire, full speed running began once more for the final lap – where Beckmann had caught right up to the back of Mawson. Unable to make the difference into turn 2, Beckmann continued to hound the Arden Motorsport driver until the final corners, diving past with DRS assistance into turn 13 and clinching victory on the final lap. Richard Verschoor tried to follow through, but Mawson was unwilling to give up any further positions and held onto second.
“It has been a very positive weekend, we came into it with the aim of finishing on the podium – and we achieved that, so we’ve got to be pleased with the result,” said Mawson.
“At the same time though, we can’t help but be a little gutted with the result in the last race. It was there for the taking but the Virtual Safety Car came out at the wrong moment for me and I just couldn’t hold Beckman off with him having the use of DRS on the last lap.
“We had much better pace all weekend, not once was I outside the top ten and to be able to lead the race the way in which I did was very positive. It’s good to be able to come away from an event knowing that we had genuine pace and have really got something to work with over the break before the final round.
“I‘m so excited for everyone in the PODIUM group, this result is for them and I’m sure Tom Warwick is looking down on us with a smile on his face.
“We now go into a break and will be aiming for another podium and finish on a high at the final round in Abu Dhabi.”
The GP3 Series will take a break before heading to the final round in Abu Dhabi on November 23-25.