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Bianchi wins again in race one

Jules Bianchi sustained race-long pressure from Alexander Sims to take his seventh Formula 3 Euro Series victory of the season at Barcelona

The championship leader led the race from start to finish for ART, with his biggest challenge coming when Mucke driver Sims attacked him around the outside of the first corner of the opening lap.

After that, the British driver was often able to close the gap to less than a second, but he was never able to get close enough to mount another attack.

Behind the top two, Andrea Calderelli took his first podium finish in the series. The Italian appeared set to drop back having made a poor start from the front row, but he emerged from the first corner in third after several incidents shuffled the pack considerably.

The SG Formula driver ran with the leaders for most of the race, but in the closing stages he fell back into the clutches of ART's Valtteri Bottas, who could not quite get close enough to attempt a pass.

Behind Bottas, Henkie Waldschmidt completed a good day for SG with fifth place, while Christian Vietoris's slim title hopes took another dent as he could only manage sixth place for Mucke.

The German was one of several drivers to have his first lap hindered by the chaos at Turn 1, as he made heavy contact with team-mate Sam Bird just ahead of the other clashes that eliminated several drivers.

The scrap for the front row for Sunday's reversed-grid race provided some interest behind Vietoris at least, with Basil Shaaban (Prema), series returnee Renger van der Zande (Motopark) and Adrien Tambay (ART) fighting for the two spots on the front tow.

Shaaban survived several attacks from van der Zande, who then dropped back slightly as Tambay closed in. The French driver then dived down the inside of the British F3 race winner at Turn 1, but despite van der Zande just about giving him room, he spun as he tried to turn in.

That left Shaaban, who came up from 18th on the grid after avoiding the first lap carnage, safe in seventh, taking his first points in the Euro Series.

Pos  Driver                Team            Car     Time/Gap
 1.  Jules Bianchi         ART             D/M   30m22.894s
 2.  Alexander Sims        Mucke           D/M     + 1.071s
 3.  Andrea Caldarelli     SG              D/M     + 3.212s
 4.  Valtteri Bottas       ART             D/M     + 3.877s
 5.  Henkie Waldschmidt    SG              D/M     + 5.560s
 6.  Christian Vietoris    Mucke           D/M     + 9.938s
 7.  Basil Shaaban         Prema           D/M    + 20.138s
 8.  Renger van der Zande  Motopark        D/M    + 20.954s
 9.  Roberto Merhi         Manor           D/M    + 24.852s
10.  Mika Mäki             Signature       D/V    + 28.165s
11.  Tiago Geronimi        Signature       D/V    + 31.231s
12.  Tim Sandtler          Prema           D/M    + 36.757s
13.  Johan Jokinen         Kolles & Heinz  D/V    + 41.065s
14.  Christopher Zanella   Motopark        D/M    + 41.469s
15.  Pedro Enrique         Manor           D/M    + 42.913s
16.  Carlo Van Dam         SG              D/M    + 43.784s
17.  Adrien Tambay         ART             D/M    + 44.848s
18.  Marco Wittmann        Mucke           D/M  + 1m06.007s

Retirements:

     Jake Rosenzweig       Carlin          D/V  15 laps
     Esteban Gutierrez     ART             D/M  12 laps
     Cesar Ramos           Manor           D/M  11 laps
     Sam Bird              Mucke           D/M  1 lap
     Stefano Coletti       Prema           D/M  0 laps
     Jean Karl Vernay      Signature       D/V  0 laps
     Nick Tandy            Kolles & Heinz  D/V  0 laps

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