F3: Giovinazzi beats Russell in Masters

Antonio Giovinazzi swept to victory in the 25th running of the Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort, winning by eight seconds from Carlin teammate George Russell.

The Jagonya Ayam protege led from start to finish, his task made easier when front-row man Markus Pommer stalled at the getaway, leading to a host of avoidances from the remainder of the 18-car field.

Giovinazzi opened up a two-second gap within two laps and, although Russell stabilised this and even made small inroads on laps six and seven, the Italian soon began pulling away again.

As the pace of the rest of the field faded, Giovinazzi was able to start banging in quick laps again at the end of the race and pulled away by over one second on each of the last three laps.

"I saw George was behind me and I did just the first three laps 100 percent, and after I saved the tires for the end of the race," said Giovinazzi. "I'm really happy after winning the Pau Grand Prix to also win the Masters, but now I just want to focus on fighting for the European championship -- after tomorrow, we will already be working for the Nurburgring [next weekend]."

Russell wriggled ahead of a three-abreast moment into the Tarzanbocht after the start with Sergio Sette Camara and Sam MacLeod. The Englishman's second place was never really in doubt, while behind him Sette Camara was pressured by Motopark teammate MacLeod in the early stages before consolidating the final podium spot.

Another Motopark runner, Nabil Jeffri, soaked up pressure on his fifth place from the Van Amersfoort Racing machine of Arjun Maini, who was right on the heels of the Malaysian as they took the chequered flag.

Ryan Tveter fended off early attacks from the sister Carlin car of the fast-starting Callum Ilott in the early stages, which in turn brought the second VAR entry of Alessio Lorandi into play in the fight for seventh, although the places never changed.

One place that did change was the final spot in the top 10. Felix Serralles stayed within the radar of the group in front for a while, but his Jo Zeller Racing car faded as the race wore on and Julio Moreno -- who in turn was chased hard by T-Sport teammate Dennis Olsen -- swept around the outside of the Puerto Rican at the Hugenholtzbocht hairpin, which in turn allowed Olsen momentum to pass Serralles too.

Pommer recovered to just behind this battle, but pitted with four laps to go and rejoined to finish one lap down.

Originally on Autosport.com