The Silverstone round this weekend marks the beginning of a new British F3, in its four-round format. While it has been a downgrade, the new series attracted significant attention from the usual F3 favorite teams and boasts a 19-car grid for the season opener. Some of the drivers here are key figures in their respective F3 categories and should produce quality competitive racing in the fight for a trophy which still carries a lot of prestige in racing.

Kicking off the main “International Class” entries is Fortec Motorsport, who will, evidently, be arriving at Silverstone in almost full force, with a strong three-car lineup. The team’s leader in European F3, Felix Serralles, will be heading the assault. The Puerto Rican won a British F3 race at Silverstone before and has raced there in Formula Renault 2.0 UK. His strong record, coupled with several good recent performances, suggests he’s the prime favorite for the weekend

Having parted ways with T-Sport and finding refuge with Fortec, Will Buller will certainly be a man to look out for. The F3 veteran’s Silverstone record isn’t as impressive as his teammate’s, but he’s won in British F3 previously and looks set to do it again, no matter the circuit.

Felipe Guimaraes is Fortec’s third man, somewhat surprisingly, as just a month ago the Brazilian’s eyes looked set on a GP3 seat. He didn’t land the drive and continued to win in the local F3 Sudamericana, his British F3 outing being a nice opportunity to see how he’ll stack up against some of F3′s finest. Guimaraes is no pushover, having been on the podium in GP3, and will hope to add a British F3 trophy to his list.

Fortec’s usual rival team Carlin’s also bringing out a trio, aiming to maintain their phenomenal streak of great performances in the series. 19-year-old Jordan King should be the expected team leader at Silverstone, with solid campaigns in FR2.0 behind his back and an impressive start to his European F3 season. He has come ever so closely to taking his maiden F3 podium in the latter but it will be a surprise if he leaves Silverstone this time without that particular milestone achieved.

The other two, Nicholas Latifi and Jann Mardenborough, are mere rookies at first glance, but their European F3 performances suggested that there’s much more to them. Mardenborough looked excellent in the Toyota Racing Series and, for a man with a resume of mostly GT racing, has been very impressive in F3. Latifi, meanwhile, has been inconsistent this year, but, on his day, has made a few headlines, running among the top drivers.

Completing the International Class is another trio, fielded by Double R Racing. Antonio Giovinazzi will be the man to look out for here, the Italian having made a rocky but promising start in European F3 after a fantastic 2012. Giovinazzi is still learning but is already a fantastic racer and could very well be looking at his first F3 podium. Sean Gelael and Tatiana Calderon are also with the team and are facing a steep learning year, but could produce a surprise or two – Gelael in particular.

The National Class is also a nine-car affair, with Team West-Tec fielding a stunning seve drivers. Some of them will utilize the machinery from the main class of F3 Open – the F312s with Toyota engines. Out of them, Roberto La Rocca and Ed Jones should be the main contenders for the class success, while Chris Vlok and Huan Zhu will face the need to learn the machinery. The West-Tec crew from the secondary F3 Open class is also here, on F308s - Liam Venter, Cameron Twynham and Sean Walkinshaw.

Alice Powell, GP3 points scorer and current F3 Cup leader, also is here in a Toyota-powered car, albeit a 306 model. Chinese racer Sun Zheng rounds out the class, as he will be fielded by CF Racing in an F311.

Finally, John Bryant-Meisner will quite literally be in a class of his own, running as a guest in the Volkswagen F310 with his German F3 team, Performance. The Swede has looked excellent in his series and looks to get some more racing practice after a crash ruled him out for most of 2012.

Dzhon Simonyan will be making his Formula Abarth debut this weekend at Adria, replacing Aku Pellinen at GSK for what was described as a last-minute switch.

The 1991-born Russian junior has little previous experience in single-seaters, with this year’s Formula Renault Alps campaign being his first foray into major European racing. In the four races so far with GSK in Alps, Simonyan has scored the best finish of 14th.

Meanwhile, Pellinen sits in fourth in the Formula Abarth main standings, with the best finish of fourth in round one.

Stoffel Vandoorne was quickest in the Thursday practice session for Formula Renault 3.5 at Monte Carlo but his achievement was marred by a penalty for failing to respect yellow flags.

The Belgian failed to slow down sufficiently after Mathias Laine crashed out and brought out the yellow flag. Vandoorne then spun and collided with the stationary car of Zoel Amberg, which rewarded him with a five-grid drop for Saturday’s race. The Fortec racer himself claimed that he saw no yellow flags on track, but the testimony from track officials was different.

Antonio Felix da Costa came in second in the practice, ahead of Norman Nato and series debutant Carlos Sainz, Jr.in his first major series session around Monte Carlo.

Mikhail Aleshin was fifth ahead of series leader Kevin Magnussen and Jazeman Jaafar. Nick Yelloly placed eighth on his return to the World Series by Renault, beating Marco Sorensen and Nigel Melker.

Session result

Johnny Cecotto, Jr. took his second GP2 career pole at the site of his first pole at Monte Carlo, dominating his group and setting a good enough time to remain unbeaten by the very best in Group B.

The Monaco qualifying, as last year, was separated into two groups, and Cecotto prevailed in the first one. Sam Bird was second ahead of Kevin Ceccon and Julian Leal. Down a second from the leader was Felipe Nasr, who took fifth and will therefore be starting the race in ninth place.

Group B saw a much closer qualifying session and Mitch Evans was the one to top the timesheets, qualifying on front row to set up a 1-2 for Arden. Fabio Leimer was second, ahead of Jolyon Palmer, Tom Dillmann and Robin Frijns.

Session results

* Haryanto will start in 25th due to a grid penalty carried over from last round
** Binder received a three-place penalty for impeding Canamasas and will start in 22nd

Sam Bird began the weekend by living up to his “Monaco specialist” fame, topping the GP2 practice session at the track.

Bird led a Russian Time 1-2 ahead of Tom Dillmann, with the two teammates separated by a mere 0.05s. GP3 champion Mitch Evans was third, while his teammate Johnny Cecotto took sixth, having won his first race at the track last year. Carlin’s Jolyon Palmer and Marcus Ericsson of DAMS were between them, in fourth and fifth respectively.

Championship contenders Fabio Leimer and Felipe Nasr were seventh and eighth. Rio Haryanto took ninth, while James Calado rounded out the top ten and effectively ended the session going off-track. Championship leader Stefano Coletti clocked in in 17th.

The qualifying will being at 14:10 GMT, with the drivers being separated into two groups.

Session results

Monaco is famed for its Grand Prix, the jewel in the Formula 1 calendar. Some of the greatest ever drivers have made their name around the streets of Monte Carlo, but it’s rare for a racing star to to emerge from the streets of Monte Carlo. Louis Chiron is the only home winner of the Monaco Grand Prix, back in 1931.

This year, the Principality has a driver of its own to cheer on. He’s not in F1 yet, but he’s making a strong bid to be there soon. With two wins from six races so far, Stefano Coletti leads the GP2 standings as the series arrives in his back yard.

It would be easy to dismiss Coletti as another GP2 veteran, with more experience than raw ability. After all, he made his debut in 2009, and managed just a single podium finish last year…

Stefano was born in Monaco on 6 April 1989 to his Monegasque mother Armande and Italian father Gianluigi (he was conceived onboard Keke Rosberg’s yacht, if you believe his personal website). While his older sister Alexandra went on to represent Monaco in Olympic skiing, Stefano took up karting.

In 2003 he finished second to Sebastien Buemi in the Italian Open Masters in the ICA Junior class before beating fellow 15-year-olds Jules Bianchi and James Calado to win the European Championship in 2004 as well as the Andrea Margutti Trophy. Already with Red Bull Junior Team support, Coletti then skipped the top level of karting and made the early move to single-seaters, but had a quiet year in Formula BMW ADAC. Things did improve in 2006 when he finished seventh overall – but had he not missed the final round he would have been one place higher and as the top scorer in the Mucke team, at the expense of a certain Sergio Perez, who was also in his second year.

Coletti switched to Formula Renault 2.0 for 2007 and finished fourth in the Eurocup, before stepping up to F3 for 2008. However, he found himself without a drive after just two rounds when Red Bull replaced him at the Signature team with Robert Wickens. He re-emerged soon afterwards with Prema and finished the year with a fourth place at Hockenheim. Sticking with Prema for 2009, he won the opening race of the season at Hockenheim but got himself into trouble two rounds later when he clashed post-race with Bianchi, the stewards excluding him from the rest of the weekend. He scored points at only one of the remaining meetings and finished tenth in the points.

Coletti had a difficult time last year, including in Monaco (Photo: Daniel Kalisz/GP2 Media Service)

A first step into GP2 with the Durango team at the end of the year came to an abrupt halt after just three races when he was injured at Spa-Francorchamps. His main focus for 2010 was Formula Renault 3.5, where he finished sixth in the standings, but he also joined GP3 from the second round and finished up ninth. He joined GP2 full-time in 2011 with Trident and scored three sprint race wins over the course of the year (including one in the Asia Series), so there were big hopes for his switch to Coloni for 2012. However, he struggled, with only one podium to his name with two rounds to go, when he transferred to Rapax.

He immediately gelled with his new team, and signed early on the dotted line to remain with them for the 2013 season. He showed promising pace in the final pre-season test to enter the campaign as a possible title contender. In the first qualifying of the year in Malaysia he claimed top spot, but in the feature race he was hampered by a familiar problem – trying to make the tyres last the distance. He quickly made up for that with victory in the sprint race the next day, when not only did he manage his tyres well, but he also made a rocket start, something that has become a familiar sight since.

Coletti added two more podium finishes in Bahrain, and although fourth in the Barcelona sprint race brought that run of top-threes to an end, another of those demon launches propelled him to a second win of the season in the sprint race. He holds a 17 point lead over nearest rival Felipe Nasr, who has also had an impressive run of top-four finishes to start the season with, but is still searching for his maiden win.

The coming weekend is a big one for Coletti in so many ways. Like every weekend for the rest of his season, he needs to keep up the strong form. Winning the title is not necessarily enough to get to F1 – see Davide Valsecchi last season. He needs to stay amongst the leaders in qualifying, keep scoring podiums and add as many race wins as he can.

But not only does his home round offer the chance to keep making an impression on the F1 fraternity, but also on the locals. And there could be few places other than Monaco where making an impression on the local population could provide such massive opportunities. To increase his chances of making that F1 step, Coletti is going to need to secure more financial backing. While his father does run an estate agency in Monaco, his main sponsor is an Italian pasta company. Unlikely, you would think, to have the resources to compete with the figures quoted for some F1 seats at present. Some high profile success this weekend could secure the sort of deals that would really open the door to F1.

Coletti and Nasr have finished all six races so far this year in the top four (Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service)

Furthermore, with all that is potentially at stake, this weekend provides the ultimate test of Coletti’s ability under pressure. He’s generally gone well in his previous races around his home streets, with fifth place finishes in 2010 and 2011, although matching those results would actually be his worst finish of the season so far. Will the additional burden of attention he will be under this year, given his recent form, drive him on to another level, or will he crack?

There’s going to be plenty of competition for Coletti to overcome in order to win this weekend. As mentioned before, Nasr is on fine form and hungry for that first GP2 win. Fabio Leimer won the first two feature races of the season, while Robin Frijns was dominant in just his second GP2 round in Barcelona. The greatest opposition however could come from Sam Bird, who considers himself something of a Monaco specialist. He claimed pole position in 2011, but stalled at the start. He was determined to make up for that in Formula Renault 3.5 last year and he did so, blitzing the opposition in qualifying and then leading the race from start to finish, holding Jules Bianchi at bay. He’s generally been as quick as anyone so far this season despite driving for the new Russian Time setup, but, not for the first time, his luck has often deserted him.

Elsewhere, Jolyon Palmer was a winner here last year, as was Johnny Cecotto from pole position. Alexander Rossi finished third in the FR3.5 race last year despite an Arden Caterham car that was still somewhat off the pace at the time, while James Calado desperately needs to get his season firing on all cylinders. Coletti doesn’t fly the Monegasque flag alone – compatriot Stephane Richelmi went well here last year and started on the front row last time out in Barcelona.

After four rounds of the 2013 European F3 season, Will Buller and the ThreeBond with T-Sport squad have announced the Brit’s departure from the squad.

The 20-year-old racer from Nothern Ireland has cited the inability to run at the front as the primary reason for the separation, which appears to be amicable. In the standings, Buller lies in 11th, with fourth at the Monza season opener remaining as his best finish.

“The relationship with William has been very successful, but we are still unable to qualify in the top six, which is essential for success in Formula 3″, stated team principal Russel Eacott. It’s a shame the partnership has not worked out for all parties but we wish William all the best in his future racing career.”‘

Buller himself made the following statement: “I was very excited after the pre-season testing for the 2013 campaign, but after the first four rounds of the championship it has proven very difficult to achieve our goal of running at the front of the grid. I have no doubt that T-Sport will get there over time as a result of some great people within, but I feel the campaign is more likely to take two years rather than one, and therefore to achieve my own personal goals we have to review my options. We were delighted that Russell understood our issues and the fact that he was totally supportive reflects the ethos of the company in developing drivers.”

2013 marks Buller’s fourth year in F3 racing, with him having won in British F3, F3 Euro Series and GP3 over his career. Recently, the Brit was unveiled as part of Fortec’s British F3 lineup and could be joining them for their European F3 effort as well. T-Sport, meanwhile, will reportedly only field Spike Goddard for the Red Bull Ring round, but, according to Autosport and other sources, have drivers lined up for the subsequent outings.

Even despite a technical infringement that cost the Italian a race win, Marciello’s dominance at Brands Hatch leaves the European F3 title looking as good as decided…

FIA F3 European Championship

Three wins from Prema in a near-perfect weekend, marred by a technical mistake

While other rounds of the championship saw a more balanced distribution of pace between the teams, at Brands it was all about Prema. And, as usual, their charge was led by one Raffaele Marciello, who continued to dominate the series in a mighty fashion. After narrowly missing out on the win in race one and despite not getting to start from pole in the three races, race two saw him have the lead by turn one and keep it until the checkered flag. Race three was the same scenario. Unfortunately for the Italian racer, a technical infringement with gear ratio length robbed him of his seventh victory of the season, but he won’t be losing much sleep over that, as his lead in the championship still appears rather unassailable.

Then there was Alex Lynn, who secured pole for all the three races and was looking to have his best weekend to date with overtaking a massive challenge at the track. He won race one, keeping Marciello at bay, and, while he lost the lead into turn one, he managed to take a commendable second. Race three followed a similar pattern right up to the point where the Brit spun on track and was forced into retirement, a stain on an otherwise stellar weekend.

Despite not standing on top of the podium, Lucas Auer is now an FIA F3 race winner (Photo: FIA F3)

Lucas Auer will be the one with no complaints about his weekend after the three races. He qualified third in all of them and completed Prema 1-2-3s in race one and two, even managing some brilliant overtakes. After race three and Marciello’s disqualification, he found himself the recipient of a maiden win.

Mucke’s Felix Rosenqvist and Carlin’s Harry Tincknell remained in their usual roles, trying to chip at Prema’s dominance. Both recorded podium finishes and were generally best of the rest, but the pace to challenge Prema was not there in qualifying or the races. Felix Serralles, and Fortec overall, meanwhile, had a miserable time, failing to add to his points tally after the excellent Hockenheim performance.

Finally, some of the smaller teams allowed for performances to remember. Tom Blomqvist was his usual consistent self, with good points finishes over the three races, while Sven Muller was something else entirely. The German was inches away from his first podium of the season before retiring with a mechanical problem, but made up for it with two great finishes in the other races.’

Report: Lynn takes his first win in European F3

Report: Marciello controls race two at Brands

Report: Marciello wins again at Brands Hatch

Report: Auer inherits Brands win as Marciello is excluded post-race

Next round: Red Bull Ring, 1-2 June

German F3

Kirchhofer proves wheel-to-wheel prowess, outscores teammates

Another fantastic Lotus showing sees their three drivers top the standings (Photo: formel3.de)

While Prema completely obliterated the field in European F3, in German F3 it was the Lotus team which reigned over the two races at Nurburgring, as the reverse-grid outing did not happen due to limited time and fog. Series leader Marvin Kirchhofer continued to be the man to beat and found himself rather thoroughly beaten in qualifying. He made a superb comeback in the races, though, going from fourth to second in race one before taking the win in the other race to emerge as the rounds’ best scorer, proving his abilities in wheel-to-wheel racing.

Emil Bernstorff took over from Kirchhofer as the poleman for the feature races of the round and looked very mighty in race one, keeping the feisty German at bay to take his second win. In race two, he only managed third due to technical mishaps, but, after a rocky start to the year, he shouldn’t be too disappointed with a nice, consistent round.

Artem Markelov is still chasing that win, but was on the podium yet again in both races, adding yet another second place to his record. He’s still ahead of Bernstorff in the standings, but Kirchhofer is noticeably getting away, and the Russian might want to stop settling for second if he wants to be a part of the fight.

For Performance Racing, it was a weekend of damage limitations. Since Lotus locked out both podiums, the best they could do was fourth and in both races that honour belonged to their team leader, John Bryant-Meisner, who continues to do his best to keep up with the Lotus men in the standings. Thomas Jager and Yannick Mettler were, as usual, right behind him in both races, while Gustavo Menezes of the Van Amersfoort squad couldn’t challenge either of the big teams this time and finished behind their contingents.

In the Trophy class, GU-Racing’s Freddy Killensberger and Sebastian Balthasar were at it again, and Killensberger emerged better off with one win. The other win went to Hubertus-Carlos Vier, who’s doing a stellar job of keeping up with the two leaders in the standings.

Report: Bernstorff wins race one at Nurburgring

Report: Marvin Kirchhofer heads another Lotus 1-2-3 at Nurburgring

Next round: Sachsenring, 8-9 June

Pau Grand Prix

Brits set the pace, but the tricky street circuit denies them the win

Ghiotto was there to pick up the spoils of war between Fortec teammates (Photo: Renault Sport)

The Formula Renault 2.0 non-championship round at Pau came up a little short of the stars that it appeared to attract, but even with a few people non-present, the grid that did turn up was stellar in every single way.

Fortec Motorsport brought in a killer lineup, with junior rising stars in Matt Parry and Alfonso Celis and a proven winner in Jake Dennis. It was Parry who’d take the reigns over the weekend, putting himself on pole for the qualifying race and then winning that with ease. Dennis lined up alongside him for the main event and things looked very smooth for Fortec.

Alas, it was not to be. Celis was the catalyst for a safety car in the man race and, on restart, the two Fortec Brits came together, clogging up the track to bring out a red flag and losing track position. In the end, Dennis was third and Parry fifth, which was hardly the result the two young champions were hoping for.

Tech 1 brought in a very strong lineup, with experienced drivers in Matthieu Vaxiviere and Pierre Gasly and a rookie in Egor Orudzhev. The Frenchmen had a weekend to forget – Vaxiviere crashed out in the main event, while Gasly’s drive through nearly ended up in a disqualification and demoted him to seventh overall. Orudzhev, meanwhile, not having been a frontrunner for the majority of the weekend, found himself on the podium of the Grand Prix, as he finished second.

Manor brought in one driver, Oliver Rowland, who, unsurprisingly, was always there or thereabout in the fight for the lead. He was third in the qualifier race, but ended up outside the podium in the main race, again ending up behind fellow RSF man Dennis.

Where the other teams stumbled, it was Prema’s drivers who picked up the spoils. Bruno Bonifacio appeared to be the team’s leader for the event, taking fifth for the main race yet generally managing to run in the vicinity in the top three. He failed to take advantage of the Fortec incident as he was penalised for passing under yellows – a mistake that potentially cost him the win. Luca Ghiotto was the quieter man over the weekend, but with the hectic main event, that proved to be one worthwhile skill to have and, after the penalties have been served and the order of the race clarified, it was the Italian who was in the lead. He kept that lead for three more laps to become the winner of this year’s Pau Grand Prix.

Report: Parry claims Pau Grand Prix pole with qualifying race win

Report: Ghiotto claims Pau Grand Prix win after Parry and Dennis tangle

French F4

Hubert continues to leave the rest in the dust

French prodigy Anthoine Hubert maintained his monopoly over the feature races in the series, taking double pole and encountering little resistance on his way to victories in race one and race three. In race two, he didn’t produce one of his better results, finishing only fourth, but that proved more than enough to maintain a supreme lead in the standings.

The fight for second in the standings, meanwhile, raged on 80 points adrift. Jules Gounon was quiet in the feature races, but his reverse-grid win allowed him to stand as Hubert’s primary challenger after Pau. Simo Muhonen added several strong results to his win in round one and sits in third, while Felix Hirsiger added another podium to his resume, but isn’t any higher in the points’ table due to a mishap in race three.

One-off podiums for Tom le Coq and Florian Pottier see them in respectable positions in the standings. Meanwhile, pre-season contenders Tristan Viidas and Neal Van Vaerenbergh finally overcame their lousy luck to record their respective top three finishes.

Report: Frenchmen Hubert and Gounon take Pau wins

Report: Hubert takes another Pau win

Next round: Spa-Francorchamps, 8-9 June

BRDC F4

Three different winners again, yet the contenders start to emerge

The second round of BRDC F4, taking place at Brands Hatch, again produced three different winners and Seb Morris, yet again, wasnt’t one of them. However, whilst the pre-season favorite enjoyed an excellent first round that saw him lead the series, his round two was marred by a bad qualifying and he barely secured any points.

A win and another podium for Jake Dalton allowed him to take the lead of the series, but him and Charlie Robertson were practically toe-in-toe for the entire weekend, with the HHC man also securing a win and appearing on the podium for the other two races.

The round also saw another win for Matt Bell, as well as one-off podiums for Falco Wauer, Raoul Hyman and debutant James Fletcher. The lack of consistency from most series participants sees the trio of Robertson, Bell and Dalton embroiled in an almost exclusive fight for the series lead.

Report: Dalton holds off Robertson to win first Brands Hatch race

Report: Bell and Robertson claim Sunday wins at Brands Hatch

Next round: Snetterton, 15-16 June

Formula Renault 1.6 NEC

The new series kicked off at Zandvoort and saw Martin Rump make an expected great start with a double pole success. Yet, in race one, Rump allowed the victory to slip away from him, losing out to Roy Geerts by less than a second due to a mistake under braking. He was the clear victor in the wet race two however, beating Tommy van Erp by four seconds. Paul Blomqvist was third in both races.

PaddockScout Driver of the Weekend:

Raffaele Marciello

It was a close one between the Italian and German F3′s Marvin Kirchhofer, but in the end, there was simply nothing to criticize about the performance of Prema’s top man. Marciello was brilliant over the three races, driving like a champion and showing great skills in managing the gap to his teammates. His race three disqualification was the result of the team’s mistake, came due to an infringement that gave him no substantial advantage and took away what was otherwise a perfectly legitimate, fine win.

Nick Yelloly will contest this weekend’s Formula Renault 3.5 Series round in Monaco after a late call-up from the Zeta Corse team.

Yelloly finished fifth in the championship last year driving for Comtec, but switched to GP3 over the winter after being unable to raise the finances for a seat with a top FR3.5 team. He did test pre-season for Zeta, a restructuring of the old BVM Target entry, and now gets the chance to race for the squad in Monaco, where he finished seventh last year.

The British driver joins fellow GP3 racer Carlos Sainz Jr at Zeta, with Monte Carlo absent from the F1 feeder series this year.

Zeta had run Mihai Marinescu in one car at the previous two FR3.5 rounds at Monza and Motorland Aragon, while Emmanuel Piget and Matheo Tuscher took in a meeting each in the second machine.

“First of all I want to thank Trevor Carlin, who allowed us to sign Yelloly for this weekend at Monaco,” said Zeta team manager Claudio Corradini. “I’m happy to rely on Nick as he already proved to be a top-class racer like in last year’s FR3.5.

“Needless to say, we’re very excited for the weekend ahead, with two very talented drivers like Yelloly and Sainz Jr. Despite being a rookie, the young Spaniard proved in testing he has all what it takes to be a frontrunner. Now we have to work hard and enable our drivers to take full advantage of our racecars.”

Luca Ghiotto became the winner 72nd edition of the Pau Grand Prix after early race leaders Matt Parry and Jake Dennis collided, and Pierre Gasly was later handed a penalty while just laps from victory.

Starting from pole after his domination of Sunday’s first race of the Formula Renault 2.0 Pau Trophy, Caterham junior Parry led the opening lap as the safety car made an early appearance when Alfonso Celis crashed into the barriers after contact with Egor Orudzhev off the start.

At the restart, Parry came under attack from Fortec team-mate Dennis heading up the hill. As the Racing Steps pulled alongside, contact was made, sending Dennis across the track. Third-placed Oliver Rowland was caught up, and the track was blocked for those behind. Pierre Gasly was able to sneak past and took the race lead as the red flags came out, even though everyone was able to get going again and return to the grid.

Gasly opened up a six-second lead over Ghiotto once the race got going again, but his dreams of victory were dashed when he was handed a drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellows. He initially delayed his decision to serve the penalty, and rejoined in fifth, but was later handed a 30 second penalty for that delay and was classified down in seventh.

Ghiotto inherited the lead when Gasly peeled off and held on for the remaining three laps to claim victory, but Orudzhev was less than two seconds behind at the flag.

“I managed to stay in touch with Gasly after the start, but the tyres lost a lot of performance after seven laps,” said Ghiotto. “This is a difficult sport, both financially and in other respects, and I hope this victory will help me in the future. I also hope to return to Pau next year, in whichever category that may be.”

Dennis recovered to finish in third place, having spent the second part of the race fending off the attempts of fellow Racing Steps Foundation driver Rowland. Gasly’s penalty promoted Parry to fifth, with Ghiotto’s Prema team-mate Bruno Bonifacio finishing sixth after also having a drive-through for ignoring yellows. Tristian Papavoine was eighth for AV Formula, with Nicolas Pironneau the final finisher in ninth. Matthieu Vaxiviere crashed out on lap seven.

Race results