ART GP's Alexander Albon pounced at the start on team mate Charles Leclerc to take victory in GP3's very first race in Malaysia.
Taking his fourth win of the season, Albon has thrown himself right back into contention for the GP3 title race, comfortably leading every lap of the race after taking the lead at the start.
The Thai driver got ahead of Leclerc as the lights went out, passing him on the run down to the first corner.
However, it was a battle between Leclerc and another ART driver – Nyck de Vries – that really impacted the result of the race. The Dutchman looked to go down the inside of the series points leader's car at Turn 4, but with little room, contact was made.
De Vries spun and dropped down the field to 18th, while Leclerc was able to continue, albeit in fourth place. He recovered third shortly after, passing Arjun Maini around the outside of Turn 6, and for the rest of the race, set about reeling in second-placed Jack Aitken.
The gap at the end of the race was just under a second, but ultimately Haas development driver Leclerc ran out of laps. They stayed as they were, with Albon over six seconds in the lead ahead of Aitken and Leclerc.
Behind the front three were Arjun Maini, Steijn Schothorst, Jake Dennis, Nirei Fukuzumi, Antonio Fuoco, Matthew Parry, and Sandy Stuvik, who completed the top 10.
De Vries recovered to ninth on the road, but was handed a five-second time penalty for the collision with Leclerc, and was classified in 13th.
Jenzer Motorsport debutant Alessio Lorandi finished a frustrating but encouraging 11th in his first race in the series, while home driver Akash Nandy did not finish the race, along with Santino Ferrucci, Tatiana Calderon, Artur Janosz, and Jake Hughes.
The result means that Leclerc still leads the title fight, and is in fact still 24 points ahead, but the nearest challenger is now Albon, with former second place man Fuoco qualifying poorly and only picking up four points in the race.
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