GP3 Race 2 – SA’s Hyman claims maiden GP3 win

South African Raoul Hyman delivered a masterful performance to win the second GP3 race at Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix meeting. After claiming pole position for the reverse grid race with a strong drive to 8th in the opening race, Hyman delivered an emphatic lights to flag victory at Spielberg’s Red Bull Ring.

“I am absolutely over the moon,” Hyman confirmed. “It sounds fantastic — I have been wanting to be here for a while and here I am — this is so special!”

“The weekend didn’t start off very well,” Raoul explained. “It wasn’t too bad in practice, but in qualifying, the lap that put me P7 was deleted because we got a bit messed up with the timing and I ended up 13th on the grid.” Raoul shifted focus onto the second race. “Race 2 is run off a reverse grid, so obviously, the target was to get eighth in race 1, which would put me on pole for the final and we could then take it from there,”

And that’s exactly what Raoul did, driving a controlled race to make up five positions to steal eighth on the last lap and claim that all-important second race pole for Sunday’s second race on Grand Prix morning. That laid the foundation for Race 2, where Raoul made a textbook start, blasting off pole position to command the race from the front in a splendid lights to flag performance.

“It wasn’t as easy as it looked but that was the perfect race,” Raoul admitted. “I had a pretty good start and there was no challenge in the first corner. “From there the race was still quite tough — the car was good enough for us to be quick in the right places but the slipstream effect around the Red Bull Ring is quite big and Giuliano Alesi was behind me, so I really had to push in the high speed corners to make sure I had a big enough gap before the next straight. “As a result, I never really had to defend in the braking zones even though he had DRS.

“It’s always quite nerve racking to drive the car home — you tend to feel and listen double to everything in the car, but it ran like a dream to the finish and I am over the moon. “My first win in my fourth race in GP3 is huge for me but I could never do that without the team that I have around me so it’s huge thanks to Adrian and the entire Campos team and to my dad and my management team — we have done it — thanks so much to every last one of you!”

There is now a week’s break until the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Sunday 16 July and Raoul can’t wait; “Now going to next weekend, it’s a huge confidence boost for the team as well because they deserve it,” Raoul concluded. “See you at Silverstone!”