Raffaele Marciello tops all-Prema podium in first Brands Hatch F3 Euro Series

Starting second, the 17-year-old Italian passed Daniel Juncadella at the start when the polesitter suffered from extreme wheelspin while trying to head him off.

He appeared to have the win sewn up when Juncadella put two wheels in the gravel at Paddock with 15 laps to go and fell almost two seconds behind.

The Spaniard dug deep though and recovered to less than 0.5s adrift, but lost time at Paddock while lapping Will Buller with a lap to go and was unable to mount a challenge in the remaining corners.

It was Marciello's second Euro Series win and his third in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship, which he now leads by three points from Juncadella.

Michael Lewis, in the third Prema car, fell back initially, but was given a mid-race reprieve when Lucas Wolf spun his URD car at Paddock and stopped on the track, bringing out the safety car.

When racing resumed, however, the American had his hands full defending third from Carlin driver Carlos Sainz Jr. He managed, and took his maiden Euro Series podium as a result, ahead of the Spaniard.

Pascal Wehrlein was the best of the Mucke drivers in fifth after resisting extreme pressure from the fourth Prema car of Sven Muller for the final 20 laps.

Muller had earlier passed Wehrlein's team-mate Felix Rosenqvist for sixth when the Swede suffered mid-corner oversteer at Paddock. The loss of momentum forced the Rosenqvist to concede at the Druids hairpin that followed.

Jazeman Jaafar was the best of the British F3 interlopers in eighth, which also gave the Malaysian pole for the afternoon's reversed-grid race.

Jaafar made the move of the race as he passed his Carlin team-mate Buller for eighth spot at Paddock on lap 11. Double R's Fahmi Ilyas also passed Buller at the same point after Jaafar's initial move pushed the Briton wide.

Buller's pace dropped away dramatically during the final five laps as he fell from 10th to 15th with a fading engine. His team-mate Harry Tincknell pulled out at half-distance after officials instructed him to pit to have a damaged front wing repaired.

One driver not on the grid was Luis Sa Silva, who withdrew ahead of the race because the damage sustained by his Angola Racing Team Dallara after his qualifying crash could not be repaired in time.

Results - 56 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Raffaelle Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc      40m23.651s
 2.  Daniel Juncadella    Prema Dallara-Merc        + 1.782s
 3.  Michael Lewis        Prema Dallara-Merc        + 9.447s
 4.  Carlos Sainz Jr      Carlin Dallara-VW        + 10.299s
 5.  Pascal Wehrlein      Mucke Dallara-Merc       + 11.217s
 6.  Sven Muller          Prema Dallara-Merc       + 11.594s
 7.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc       + 13.788s
 8.  Jazeman Jaafar       Carlin Dallara-VW        + 16.737s
 9.  Fahmi Ilyas          Double R Dallara-Merc    + 29.221s
10.  Tom Blomqvist        ma-con Dallara-VW        + 29.768s
11.  Emil Bernstorff      ma-con Dallara-VW        + 30.354s
12.  Geoff Uhrhane        Double R Dallara-Merc    + 40.983s
13.  Sandro Zeller        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc     + 1 lap
14.  Andrea Roda          Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc     + 1 lap
15.  Will Buller          Carlin Dallara-VW          + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Lucas Wolf           URD Dallara-Merc           20 laps
     Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-VW          16 laps
     Luis Sa Silva        Angola Dallara-Merc         0 laps