Marciello moves into F3 Euro Series lead following dominant win at Spielberg

After starting second, the Prema Powerteam driver attempted to pass polesitter Will Buller around the outside at each of the first three turns, but without success.

The Italian then forced his way by the Carlin man at the Remus Kurve on the following lap, leaving his braking very late and going wide onto the asphalt run-off at the exit of the turn.

As he rejoined the circuit, Buller was forced to move sharply right to avoid a collision, and lost his lead to Marciello on the drag down to the next bend. The Italian would not be challenged for the remainder of the 25 laps.

Buller was soon defending his second place from former points leader Daniel Juncadella in the second Prema car as four more rivals became stacked up behind him.

But both Buller and Juncadella - plus four others - were then given drive-through penalties for failing to slow for yellow flags that were being waved following a spin by Sandro Zeller into gravel at the Lauda Kurve. This dropped them out of podium contention.

Among the others penalised was Mucke Motorsport's Felix Rosenqvist, but he had already been delayed by a spin at Turn 1 on the second lap. The Swede had been pushed wide by his team-mate Pascal Wehrlein two corners earlier and had lost a spot to Juncadella when he spun trying to defend fifth from Carlos Sainz Jr.

The wave of penalties promoted the battle between Wehrlein and Sainz to one for second, but it did not last the distance as the Spaniard spun his Carlin car into the pit wall on lap 22 after running onto the grass exiting the final corner.

The safety car was dispatched to allow the damaged Dallara to be removed and cut Marciello's lead from 10 seconds to nothing, but the Italian still had more than enough life left in his tyres to pull away for the one remaining racing lap that was completed before the chequered flag.

Wehrlein took a career-best second place ahead of Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar and Prema's Sven Muller.

Britain's Tom Blomqvist took the best result of his stint in the Euro Series with fifth for ma-con while Michael Lewis held off his recovering team-mate Juncadella, Buller and Rosenqvist for sixth. Andrea Roda completed the top 10 for Jo Zeller Racing.

Results - 26 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                   Time/Gap
01.  Raffaelle Marciello   Prema Dallara-Merc       40m02.540s
02.  Pascal Wehrlein       Mucke Dallara-Merc         + 0.966s
03.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW          + 1.680s
04.  Sven Muller           Prema Dallara-Merc         + 2.620s
05.  Tom Blomqvist         ma-con Dallara-VW          + 2.931s
06.  Michael Lewis         Prema Dallara-Merc         + 3.846s
07   Daniel Juncadella     Mucke Dallara-Merc         + 4.136s
08.  Will Buller           Carlin Dallara-VW          + 4.748s
09.  Felix Rosenqvist      Prema Dallara-Merc         + 5.307s
10.  Andrea Roda           Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc     + 5.991s
11.  Emil Bernstorff       ma-con Dallara-VW          + 7.442s
12.  Luis Sa Silva         Angola Dallara-Merc        + 8.123s
13.  Lucas Wolf            URD Dallara-Merc           + 8.400s
14.  Philip Ellis          GU Dallara-Merc             + 1 lap
15.  Sandro Zeller         Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc     + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Carlos Sainz Jr       Carlin Dallara-VW         21 laps