Silverstone European F3: George Russell claims maiden victory

The 17-year-old emerged from minor contact with the sister Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen of Antonio Giovinazzi after the start, as the duo went three-abreast with polewinner Charles Leclerc.

Giovinazzi, who had tried to squeeze between the two rookies, then made a move around the outside of Russell at Village, but ran wide, and the lost momentum allowed Leclerc to spear around his outside and snatch second into Brooklands.

There was an early safety car due to a lower-midfield collision at Village, which resulted in Tatiana Calderon's car being marooned in the middle of the circuit, before Russell made a good restart.

Leclerc chipped away at the gap, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver bringing it down to below a second, but when he got close to Russell his front tyres began graining and he fell away again towards the finish.

"I managed to get quite a good start," said Russell. "The safety car was a bit worrying for me, but I got a good restart and built a nice gap to Charles.

"He started catching up again, but I think I held onto my tyres better than he did."

Giovinazzi, along with fellow second-row starter Brandon Maisano, elected to run on four used tyres in this race, with the most of the other leading frontrunners having two new Hankooks on the left side.

Added to damaged steering from the collision with Russell, this meant the Italian dropped back in third, although fourth-placed Lance Stroll - the leading Prema Powerteam runner in this race - was never able to get close enough to challenge.

Stroll's team-mate Maisano was fifth, although Alex Albon's Signature car was not far adrift after wriggling past fast starter Fabian Schiller.

A large queue then built up in the wake of Team West-Tec driver Schiller that provided most of the race's excitement.

First-race winner Felix Rosenqvist, who stormed through from 35th on the grid in his Prema car, claimed seventh place with seven laps remaining, and Pietro Fittipaldi took advantage to slip his Fortec Motorsport machine ahead of Schiller too.

On the final lap, Jake Dennis, who had lost ground on the first lap, tried to pass Schiller for ninth at Club, but a collision sent the German wide and tore the left-rear wheel adrift of the Brit's car.

Mucke Motorsport duo Santino Ferrucci and Mikkel Jensen - the Dane recovering from a clash with Dorian Boccolacci - took advantage to grab the final points.

RESULTS - 18 LAPS: