New Zealand motorsport has a new international star after Mitch Evans won the GP3 Series at the famous Monza track in Italy.
After crashing out of the first race of the last meeting this morning (NZT) in the opening lap and having his series lead cut to 14.5 points, the title came down to the final race.
It was a two-man battle with Germany’s Daniel Abt the only other driver in contention for the crown and needing to win the race and keep Evans out of the points to deny the Kiwi.
Evans was also disadvantaged by the reverse grid system used for the second races of the meetings, starting in 25th position, compared to Abt’s eighth.
But in a dramatic finish Abt could only manage second and that was enough to hand the title to Evans.
Evans had fought his way up to eighth and into the points when he suffered a flat tyre and slipped back to 20th.
But he had Tio Ellinas to thank as the Cyprus driver passed Abt on the second-to-last lap to give Evans – the season’s most consistent driver – the title.
It’s the most significant single-seater development for New Zealand motorsport since Scott Dixon broke into the Indy Lights division in 1999, winning the title the following year and then moving into IndyCars where he won the 2003 and 2008 titles.
The GP3 Series was set up in 2010 as a development opportunity for the most promising young drivers.
Evans joined it last year at the invitation of Australian Formula One star Mark Webber who backs Evans’ MW Arden team.
The eight-meeting series is contested at all of Europe’s Formula One meetings.
That has put Evans on some of the best tracks in the world and in front of motorsport’s biggest players.
His crowning glory last night came as a curtainraiser to the Italian Grand Prix.
His achievements won’t have gone unnoticed by the F1 giants and Webber’s influence at the Red Bull team will be massive.
Webber is a nine-time F1 race winner and right in this year’s title race.
Evans lives in a cottage on Webber’s English property in Buckinghamshire and trains regularly with the Aussie.
The most likely step from here will be a move up to the GP2 Series or the World Series Renault – the next levels of single-seater racing below F1.
That will require a cash injection with Evans suggesting the costs of campaigning in GP2 were “two thirds more than GP3”.
That totals around NZ$2m and, like most stepping stones in this hugely expensive sport, drivers have to pay a huge chunk of money for their seats.
His winning bonus will certainly help and Evans has wealthy New Zealand backers including Sir Colin Giltrap, who was at Monza, and Sir Peter Leitch, along with Kiwi companies Gen-I and Mako.
Evans finished the series ninth last year but has dominated this year’ series which featured 32 drivers from more than 16 countries.
He was the only driver to claim three victories in the 14 races and his four pole positions saw him be the top qualifier at half of the eight GP3 Series circuits. The second races on each meeting are started with reverse grids.
Evans and his management now face some big decisions. His title win is worth $400,000 from tyre manufacturer Pirelli – but only if he decides to graduate to the GP2 Series next year.
