F3: Stroll beats Ilott to Race 3 win

Lance Stroll took his second start-to-finish win of the weekend in the finale of the Formula 3 European Championship round at the Red Bull Ring.

Williams protege Stroll and his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes once again led the Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Merc of Callum Ilott as the Canadian extended his championship advantage over the Briton. Whereas in the second race Ilott used old rubber all-round, this time, like Stroll, he had two new Hankooks in the bag.

The safety car came out after three laps, and after the restart Ilott kept the gap within a second for a few laps. But from mid-distance Ilott began to drop back after a warning for track limits, and Stroll was able to extend the advantage to finish 4.867 seconds in front, setting fastest lap on the last lap.

"It's never easy in a European F3 race," said Stroll. "The start, opening laps and restart all had to go right, but yeah, it was a fantastic race and a fantastic weekend."

"It wasn't a race," said Ilott. "It was more of a case of staying within the lines.

"It's good that they're controlling it, but you're at 85 percent – it makes it boring, to be fair."

Niko Kari held an early third place, but Motopark teammate Joel Eriksson got a run on the Red Bull Junior on the restart. Kari defended into Turn 1 but ran wide, costing him a few positions, while Eriksson's lost momentum allowed Maximilian Gunther and Ben Barnicoat into third and fourth places, respectively.

Once in clear air, Prema man Gunther began to make inroads into Ilott's second place, but his tires faded in the last few laps.

Barnicoat, the only one of the leading runners on four old tires, kept a huge train behind him early on. But the squabbling Motopark quartet of Eriksson, Sergio Sette Camara, Guan Yu Zhou and Kari – who had VAR team-mates Anthoine Hubert and Harrison Newey mixed among them – allowed Hitech GP driver Barnicoat to make a break for fourth.

Red Bull youngster Sette Camara wriggled past Eriksson and wasn't too far adrift in fifth, while Eriksson, Zhou and Kari finished in close formation behind.

With Hubert and Newey taking drive-through penalties for track-limits offenses, that allowed Prema's Ralf Aron and Mucke Motorsport's David Beckmann to complete the points finishers.

Beckmann made a strong recovery after being turned around by George Russell at Turn 2 on the opening lap, an incident that also delayed Aron and resulted in Russell's retirement.

The safety car was caused when Mikkel Jensen was forced off the track by Alessio Lorandi on the run to Turn 2, the Dane spearing into the gravel trap. The swaying of Jensen's car on the snatch vehicle's winch rope harmlessly knocked over a marshal, to the amusement of those in the grandstands.

Originally on Autosport.com