Young New Zealand driver Mitch Evans has consolidated his lead in the 2012 GP3 Series with a third placing in the opening race at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium today.

German driver Daniel Abt claimed his first win in the series in a shortened race that didn't favour Evans.

Rookie Abt started from third on the grid and made an amazing pass on both Antonio Felix Da Costa (Carlin) and Evans (MW Arden) to set up his victory.

This is the penultimate meeting of the championship that winds up in Italy next weekend and Evans is looking good for the title although he will want to do even better in tomorrow's second race in Belgium.

Race one at Round 7 at Spa-Francorchamps was scheduled to be 12 laps but due to an earlier delay, the race was cut to a maximum of 25 minutes.

MW Arden teammates Evans and Matias Laine jostled for the lead over the first two laps.

Abt then made his move and Evans' hopes of regaining the lead were dashed when the race was red flagged for a bad crash by Robert Cregan.

The safety car was deployed, however the race was soon red flagged and not restarted.

Half points were given today which saw Evans increased his points lead on Fionaland's Aaro Vainio, with a gap of 24.5 points.

Felix Da Costa is catching the Finn with 112 with Abt close in pursuit with 106.5. Lotus GP lead the teams standings on 313.5, MW Arden are second with 261.5 and Carlin third on 149.

- © Fairfax NZ News