Max Fewtrell took a commanding third victory of the season at the Red Bull Ring in a race that started under blue skies but concluded with a red flag after a torrential downpour.
The R-ace GP driver maintained his advantage from pole position into turn one and survived an early safety car period, caused when his team-mate Logan Sargeant was left stranded in the middle of the track at turn two after an incident with Alexander Smolyar, while Clement Novalak and Sami Taoufik were also forced into retirement after getting tangled up in the incident.
Fewtrell pulled away from fellow front row start Richard Verschoor on the restart and was more than three seconds clear when the safety car was called upon again when the rain began to fall, with conditions heading into turn two deteriorating quickly.
After a couple of laps behind the safety car, the red flags were flown as conditions became impossible, even if drivers would have been running on the wet tyres, with the race being called at the end of fourteen laps with half points being awarded.
Verschoor and Lorenzo Colombo completed the podium for Josef Kaufmann Racing and JD Motorsport respectively, while one of the stars of the race was the Red Bull-backed Neil Verhagen, who climbed from ninth on the grid to finish fourth for Tech 1 Racing, with the American claiming the position ahead of MP Motorsport’s Christian Lundgaard.
Oscar Piastri finished sixth for Arden Motorsport ahead of fellow Australian Thomas Maxwell, while championship leader Yifei Ye showed his fighting spirit by climbing from his eleventh place on the grid to take eighth, ahead of R-ace GP duo Victor Martins and Charles Milesi.
Arthur Rougier was running inside the top seven early but found himself shuffled to eleventh by the chequered flag, with Maxwell, Ye and Milesi all finding away passed the Fortec Motorsports driver, who is still seeking his first points of the season. The Frenchman still managed his best result of the season in eleventh, just ahead of MP Motorsport’s Alex Peroni.
Red Bull Ring Race 1 Result
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