F3: Williams F1 hope Stroll seals Euro title

With his only challenger Maximilian Gunther at the back of the grid due to exclusion from qualifying, the Canadian was odd-on to clinch the title.

Gunther made good progress to 13th, before he lost it coming out of Rivazza, spearing into the inside barrier before bouncing into the middle of the track, and causing the second of three safety cars in a caution-infested race.

Stroll now only needed to finish in the top three to become champion, but aced every restart and built up an enormous lead each time to bring his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes home unchallenged.

Joel Eriksson took second in his Motopark Dallara-Volkswagen, but only after a terrific fight with Hitech GP driver George Russell.

Russell dived into second place into Tamburello at the start of lap two, and even began making inroads into Stroll's lead before Gunther's crash.

But, one lap after that caution ended, he fell victim to the brave Eriksson's outside pass into Tamburello to reclaim second.

Prema rookie Ralf Aron had his best race for some time, running fourth throughout, but there was plenty of battling behind.

Harrison Newey initially ran fifth, before losing the spot to Sergio Sette Camara.

An off for Sette Camara at Rivazza reinstated Newey to fifth, but the Briton's consistently poor restarts cost him after the final caution.

He was passed by Guan Yu Zhou, Motopark's Ferrari junior up from 14th on the grid, and then as Nick Cassidy tried to follow through they both lost time running side by side, allowing Anthoine Hubert to complete the top six in his Van Amersfoort Racing car.

Cassidy took seventh from Newey, with Niko Kari and Mikkel Jensen completing the top 10.

Jensen had been scrapping for seventh with Ben Barnicoat before they went into the gravel together at the Villeneuve chicane.

The first safety car was caused when Callum Ilott, who had already been into the gravel exiting Tamburello, got stuck in the gravel trap at Rivazza.

The final one was triggered when David Beckmann, who was running sixth, lost it at Villeneuve and smacked the barriers.

Originally on Autosport.com