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Barcelona GP3: Aaro Vainio leads Koiranen one-two in team's debut

Aaro Vainio won the 50th GP3 Series race on Sunday morning at Barcelona, the Finn taking the Koiranen GP team's first victory in the category in its second-ever start

Vainio anticipated the start to perfection from his second row starting spot, leaping from fourth to the lead by Turn 1.

Poleman and team-mate Kevin Korjus followed him, ahead of David Fumanelli, Nick Yelloly and Saturday's winner Tio Ellinas, who jumped up from eighth to fifth in his Marussia car.

Yelloly passed Fumanelli on the opening lap to grab third, but the Brit struggled to hold on to his position.

After running wide at Turn 3 on lap eight, he suffered a sequence of lock-ups that encouraged Fumanelli to attack.

Fumanelli ran out of patience, however, and simply rammed Yelloly into a spin at Turn 14. Ellinas took advantage by jumping ahead of both of them, with Patric Niederhauser then outbraking Fumanelli for fourth at Turn 1.

With Ellinas struggling with his tyres in the late stages, as he did on Saturday, Niederhauser pulled off a tidy round-the-outside move on him at Turn 4 with three laps remaining to grab the final place on the podium.

Fumanelli held on to fifth, but is under investigation from the stewards, so expect sixth-placed Conor Daly to be elevated, along with Carlos Sainz, who drove a strong race to seventh from 15th on the grid, and his former Formula 3 team-mate Jack Harvey, whom he outbraked at Turn 10 on lap 13.

Lewis Williamson finished ninth, and could get into the points if Fumanelli is sanctioned.

News update: Fumanelli penalised, Sainz excluded

The race was briefly interrupted by a safety car period when Robert Visoiu clashed with Melville McKee at Turn 7 on the opening lap. McKee was forced out, and Visoiu received a drive-through penalty.

Results - 17 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team        Time/Gap
 1.  Aaro Vainio          Koiranen  28m44.420s
 2.  Kevin Korjus         Koiranen    + 1.808s
 3.  Patric Niederhauser  Jenzer      + 6.948s
 4.  Tio Ellinas          Manor      + 14.048s
 5.  David Fumanelli      Trident    + 15.234s
 6.  Conor Daly           ART        + 15.469s
 7.  Carlos Sainz Jr      MW Arden   + 16.085s
 8.  Jack Harvey          ART        + 17.853s
 9.  Lewis Williamson     Bamboo     + 20.916s
10.  Giovanni Venturini   Trident    + 21.704s
11.  Alex Fontana         Jenzer     + 22.088s
12.  Eric Lichtenstein    Carlin     + 22.355s
13.  Adderly Fong         Status     + 22.924s
14.  Luis Sa Silva        Carlin     + 25.239s
15.  Samin Gomez          Jenzer     + 25.419s
16.  Facu Regalia         ART        + 25.968s
17.  Dino Zamparelli      Manor      + 26.851s
18.  Patrick Kujala       Koiranen   + 38.111s
19.  Robert Visoiu        MW Arden   + 40.758s
20.  Carmen Jorda         Bamboo     + 45.568s

Retirements:

     Josh Webster         Status       14 laps
     Emanuele Zonzini     Trident      12 laps
     Nick Yelloly         Carlin       12 laps
     Jimmy Eriksson       Status       10 laps
     Ryan Cullen          Manor         6 laps
     Daniil Kvyat         MW Arden      5 laps
     Melville McKee       Bamboo        0 laps

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