Giovinazzi scores belated F3 victory

Antonio Giovinazzi made up for his disappointment earlier in the day to finally claim his first Formula 3 European Championship win at the Red Bull Ring. The Italian led fellow Jagonya Ayam protege and Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen driver Tom Blomqvist all the way to win by three seconds.

Blomqvist tried his best to get past on the opening lap, before dropping away and completing an excellent weekend that has netted him a win and two seconds.

Lucas Auer squeezed ahead of Antonio Fuoco into the first corner, and the Austrian continued in third place to take his second podium of the day in his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes.

There was plenty of action behind. Max Verstappen tried to pass Fuoco at Turn 2, but ran wide over the next two corners and dropped to eighth. Verstappen had to fight his way past Jordan King, Nicholas Latifi and then Jake Dennis before once again moving in to challenge Fuoco.

With four laps remaining the Dutchman made his move at Turn 1, but ran wide. As he returned to the track, he brushed against Fuoco, damaging the Italian's front wing.

Fuoco was forced to pit for a new wing, while Verstappen, who passed Fuoco cleanly on the lap after the incident, was penalized 20 seconds after the race, dropping him outside the points to 12th.

The decision promoted Latifi to fourth, the Canadian having passed Dennis on the exit of Turn 2 as the group bunched up in the wake of the Verstappen/Fuoco battle. Dennis took fifth from Ed Jones and Jordan King, making it five Carlin runners in the top seven.

The points positions were completed by Gustavo Menezes, Tatiana Calderon and Sean Gelael - the Indonesian making it all six Carlin drivers in the top 10.

A host of drive-through penalties were given for improving sector times under yellow flags. The most significant of these was championship leader Esteban Ocon, who had raced from 14th to eighth, and was running ahead of King and Jones, when he was forced to serve his penalty. He recovered to finish 13th.

There was one early safety car, caused when Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Toril went into the gravel at Turn 5 in separate incidents on the third lap.