Alex Lynn will try to wrap up the 2014 GP3 Series title tomorrow when the second of the weekend's races takes place at Sochi in Russia.

The 21-year-old racing driver from Dunmow, who came into the penultimate round of the series with a 50-point advantage at the top of the driver standings and knowing he had the opportunity to claim the title with one round still to go.

However, he was unable to achieve that in the opening race despite a slip-up by his chief title rival, New Zealand's Richie Stanaway.

With Lynn qualifying in eighth, Stanaway had qualified sixth, but failed to stop for a weight check after the session and was forced to start the race from the pit lane.

It left the Kiwi's hopes of taking points to keep the pressure on Lynn looking slim and he ended up in a non-scoring 12th place.

That meant Lynn would have needed only 16 points from the weekend's opening race to claim the title, but he was only able to secure a seventh-place finish - the position from which he started the race - with a six-point haul.

The Essex man got crowded out in the tussle for position at the start of the race but quickly regained the seventh place that he had started from and set about trying to overall ART Grand Prix's Marvin Kirchhöfer.

However, the German always had just enough to keep Lynn at bay and he had to be content with seventh at the chequered flag.

Stanaway's failure to score in the opening race saw him drop to fourth in the overall driver standings and Lynn now has a 52-point lead at the summit from second-placed Jimmy Eriksson.

He will now have another chance to get the points he needs to become the 2014 champion in the reverse-grid second race on Sunday (start 8am British time).

Lynn, who races in GP3 for the Carlin team, is a member of the Red Bull Junior Programme and is hoping to impress watching Formula One team bosses as he tries to convince them that he should be handed the vacant ride with the Scuderia Toro Rosso team in F1 next year.