Jake Dennis took his fifth victory of the season after taking the lead into the first corner and holding off the race-long pressure from Prema Powerteam team-mate Felix Rosenqvist.
Pole-sitter Rosenqvist could not hold off Dennis into the first corner, but the Swede was never far away from his British team-mate throughout the race, but despite the almost constant pressure could not find a way past. A tiny mistake by Dennis on the penultimate lap almost cost him the win, but he held Rosenqvist off until the chequered flag.
Antonio Giovinazzi completed the podium for Jagonya Ayam with Carlin after getting ahead of Prema Powerteam’s Lance Stroll on the opening lap, and closed the gap down to the leading duo over the last few laps to finish on the tail of Rosenqvist.
Stroll finished fourth ahead of Carlin’s George Russell, while Charles Leclerc could only finish sixth for Van Amersfoort Racing. The Monegasque driver, who sits second in the championship, lost more ground to championship leader Giovinazzi as a result, despite making a good move to pass Alexander Albon of the Signature team for sixth around mid-distance.
Albon took seventh ahead of Jagonya Ayam with Carlin’s Gustavo Menezes, who passed both Sergio Sette Camara of Motopark and Mikkel Jensen of Mücke Motorsport on track and was closing the gap to Albon before the chequered flag forced an end to his charge.
There were good close battles throughout the field, with only Tatiana Calderon being warned for driving standards due to making too many defensive moves on track on her way to thirteenth.
Markus Pommer had an exciting race, with the Motopark driver finishing seventeenth having made a dreadful getaway from ninth placed grid slot at the start, dropping to the rear of the field but making up place after place during the twenty-four lap, safety car-free race.
Red Bull Ring Race 1 Result
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