Alexander Sims took a commanding victory in the second GP3 race of the weekend at Istanbul on Sunday.
The Status GP driver made a strong start from pole and was unchallenged in the early laps. He initially had teammate Antonio Felix da Costa keeping him reasonably honest in the early laps, but the Portuguese driver started dropping back just after half distance.
From then on Sims was alone out front, but there was plenty of action behind him. Da Costa, who had gone from fourth to second at the start, lost two places on lap 12, as Michael Christensen (Addax) and race one winner Nigel Melker (Mucke) picked him off.
Da Costa appeared to be a sitting duck, but he recovered from his struggles to hang on to fourth place despite the advances of Tech 1's Andrea Caldarelli.
Melker's rise from eighth on the grid to a podium finish was impressive, as he picked his way through the field. The majority of his passes came at Turn 12, where he was able to hang on around the outside on multiple occasions to gain a place.
Mitch Evans ran a solid third for Arden in the early part of the race, but he started to fade later on. He lost out to Christensen and Melker on lap seven, while Calderelli passed him for fifth a lap later. He spent the last few laps fending off Addax's Dean Smith for the final point, but the Briton got the upper hand at the penultimate corner on the final lap to snatch the place.