Photo: FIA Formula 3 European Championship
George Russell?took victory in the second FIA Formula 3 European Championship race of the day at Spa-Francorchamps.
In a race contested in?completely different conditions from the wet race one, the British driver had to fight back after losing the lead to Joel Eriksson at the beginning of the race to take his second win of the season.
As the formation lap got underway, Ben Barnicoat stalled,?leaving the fifth place spot on the grid unoccupied and the British driver starting from the pit-lane.
As the lights went out, Russell just managed to hold off Eriksson down into La Source, but he also had to cover off his team mate Nikita Mazepin. Behind the lead pack, Ralf Aron was pitched into a spin by F3 newcomer Ukyo Sasahara in the re-entered Threebond car.
With Russell desperately trying to defend from Eriksson, it allowed the rest of the drivers to bunch up behind the pair on the Kemmel Straight, with the cars going five wide into the braking zone. The winners were Eriksson, who came out of the turn in first position, and Mazepin, who also managed to squeeze through to steal second position.
Unfortunately for him, the Russian’s luck ran out as his car failed coming out of the final corner, coming to a dead halt?and almost causing a pile up behind him. Many incidents occurred around this time, with the likes of Lance Stroll catching a rear puncture, and contact for David Beckmann?which lodged his front wing under the car and forcing him to pit for repairs.
With the chaos going on behind him, Eriksson initially managed to pull a gap on Russell to break free of the tow, but the British driver was able to catch back up and after a few attempts down the Kemmel Straight, he managed to re-take first position.
The next to make a move down the Kemmel Straight was Pedro Piquet, who was up from 15th on the grid, overtaking Maximilian Gunther for sixth position as the German driver was visibly struggling with his car. Guanyu Zhou would be the next to pull off this move, this time on Ryan Tveter for eighth position, putting him onto the back of Gunther.
When the?chequered flag waved, the win went the way of Russell, who after retaking?Eriksson was able to pull out a six-second lead over the Swedish driver in second position. Third place went the way of Mikkel Jensen, who took?his first podium of the season after a rather quiet race for the Danish driver.
Anthoine Hubert took fourth position and second best rookie honours after benefiting from the first lap tussle. The Frenchman?led?Callum Ilott and Piquet in fifth and sixth positions respectively.
Gunther held onto seventh position as the only Prema Powerteam car in the points, with Zhou back in the points and the third best rookie in eighth position. Tveter finished?ninth ahead of Red Bull Junior Niko Kari rounding out the top ten.
Barnicoat managed to make his way back up the grid from last but couldn’t overtake Kari for the final points paying position, while championship leader and race one winner Stroll retired after pitting for his puncture.