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Leclerc holds off Giovinazzi for final Silverstone win

Charles Leclerc survived a late restart to claim his first European Formula 3 win in the third race of the weekend at Silverstone, the series debutant beating Antonio Giovinazzi by under half a second.

Charles Leclerc, Van Amersfoort Racing

Charles Leclerc, Van Amersfoort Racing

Alexander Trienitz

Charles Leclerc, Van Amersfoort Racing
Antonio Giovinazzi, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara F312 Volkswagen
Charles Leclerc, Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara F312 Volkswagen
Gustavo Menezes, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin
Felix Rosenqvist, Prema Powerteam Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz

After being crucially beaten from pole to the first corner in Saturday’s second race, Leclerc made a much better getaway to lead from Giovinazzi at the start, the Van Amersfoort driver steadily pulling out a gap of just over a second in the opening laps over the field.

Carlin’s Giovinazzi began to close in as the race approached mid-distance, bringing the gap down to less than half a second at one stage after a small error by Leclerc, but was unable to find a way through as the Monegasque remained solid in his defence of the lead.

A late Safety Car to recover Pietro Fittipaldi’s stricken car threatened to give Giovinazzi another chance, but Leclerc once more absorbed the pressure after the restart in a manner that belied his status as a F3 rookie to secure his maiden win in the category by 0.446s.

Behind, Prema’s Jake Dennis took advantage of the caution period to deprive Gustavo Menezes of the final podium position once racing got back under way, the American having made a lightning start to jump from eighth on the grid to third after the opening sequence of corners.

Menezes held on for fourth ahead of race two winner George Russell, who passed Alex Albon for fifth place after the restart. Completing the points scorers were Markus Pommer, Brandon Maisano, Red Bull junior Callum Ilott and Mikkel Jensen.

Once again forced to fight his way through from last on the grid, Felix Rosenqvist once again made incisive progress from 35th place on the grid. By the time of the Safety Car the Swede was up to 13th, although late contact with Nabil Jeffri dropped him to 15th before he finally recovered to finish 12th.

Rosenqvist’s Prema teammate Lance Stroll was an early casualty, the young Canadian spinning into retirement on the opening lap at Luffield having jumped the start.

Pos  Driver   Car / Engine   Gap 
Charles Leclerc Dallara/Volkswagen 35:56.649 
A.Giovinazzi Dallara/Volkswagen 0.440
Jake Dennis Dallara/Mercedes 3.255
Gustavo Menezes Dallara/Volkswagen 4.242
George Russell Dallara/Volkswagen 4.626
Alexander Albon Dallara/Volkswagen 6.345
Markus Pommer Dallara/Volkswagen 7.185
Brandon Maïsano Dallara/Mercedes 8.447
Callum Ilott Dallara/Volkswagen 9.098
10  Mikkel Jensen Dallara/Mercedes 9.551
11  Ryan Tveter Dallara/Volkswagen 10.269
12  Felix Rosenqvist Dallara/Mercedes 10.984
13  Santino Ferrucci Dallara/Mercedes 11.622
14  Alessio Lorandi Dallara/Volkswagen 12.379
15  Nabil Jeffri Dallara/Volkswagen 12.942
16  Arjun Maini Dallara/Volkswagen 13.969
17  D.Boccolacci Dallara/Volkswagen 14.485
18  Nicolas Beer Dallara/Mercedes 14.820
19  Michele Beretta Dallara/Mercedes 15.877
20  S.S.Camara Dallara/Volkswagen 16.074
21  M.Günther Dallara/Mercedes 17.417
22  Tatiana Calderón Dallara/Volkswagen 18.216
23  Martin Cao Dallara/Mercedes 19.958
24  Matthew Solomon Dallara/Mercedes 20.622
25  Fabian Schiller Dallara/Mercedes 21.249
26  Nicolas Pohler Dallara/Mercedes 21.600
27  Zhi Cong Li Dallara/Mercedes 22.071
28  Raoul Hyman Dallara/Mercedes 22.561
29  M.Raghunathan Dallara/Volkswagen 23.113
30  Julio Moreno Dallara/NBE  
Sam MacLeod Dallara/Volkswagen  
Matt Rao Dallara/Mercedes  
Kang Ling Dallara/Mercedes  
P.Fittipaldi Dallara/Mercedes  
Lance Stroll Dallara/Mercedes

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