The 2011 GP3 Series season was the second season of the GP3 Series, a feeder series for the GP2 Series. The season began at Istanbul Park on 7 May and concluded at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on 11 September after eight rounds made up of two races each and all in support of European Formula 1 Grands Prix. The 2010 champion Esteban Gutiérrez graduated to the GP2 Series so did not defend his title.
After the early rounds, the likes of Mitch Evans, Nigel Melker, Andrea Caldarelli and Alexander Sims were fighting for the championship lead. However, Caldarelli had to retire from the series due to failing to raise a sufficient budget for the whole season. Sims then held the lead after consistent podium finishes in both Valencia and Silverstone. This was not to last though, as the Finn Valtteri Bottas started to find his speed at Nürburgring, taking the top spot after winning the first race at Hungaroring while Sims was disqualified due rear floor height check. Bottas led the championship with 7 points from Sims. Total of 6 drivers were within 13 points from Bottas at that time.
Bottas was able to secure the title in the first race of Monza. In that race he took the chequered flag and his closest rival and team-mate James Calado was left to second place. As 7 points is the maximum from Sunday's race and Bottas had more victories than Calado, the 7-point gap between them was enough for Bottas to clinch the title with one race still to go.[1]
Teams and drivers
All of the teams used the Dallara GP3/10 chassis with and a Renault four-cylinder 2.0 litre (122 cu in) turbocharged engines order and with tyres supplied by Pirelli.
Valtteri Bottas joined the championship, having finished third in the Formula 3 Euro Series. He will continue with the LotusART team that he drove for in the Euro Series.
The 2011 calendar was announced on 18 January 2011. The series consisted of eight rounds. A prospective ninth round in Monaco was dropped on 2 February 2011 due to a lack of paddock space.[39] It supported every other European Formula One event.[2]
Drivers who did not finish the race but were classified are marked with †.
Footnotes
^Status Grand Prix competed under a Ireland license.
^Arden International competed under a Australia license.
^Adrian Quaife-Hobbs set the fastest lap, but did not finish in the top 10, so was ineligible to be the point-scorer for the fastest lap. Dean Smith was the point-scorer instead for setting the fastest lap of those finishing in the top 10.
^Valtteri Bottas set the fastest lap, but did not finish in the top 10, so was ineligible to be the point-scorer for the fastest lap. Callum MacLeod was the point-scorer instead for setting the fastest lap of those finishing in the top 10.
^Caruccio, Antonio (21 March 2011). "Caldarelli firma con Tech 1". ItaliaRacing.net (in Italian). Inpagina. Archived from the original on 8 October 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2011.