Will Buller wins messy Paul Ricard British Formula 3 race two

The race was run over just six laps after a botched initial start that caused a multi-car pile up on the grid and led to the first red flag of the season.

Sino Vision's Hywel Lloyd stalled while the red lights were on and the start gantry proceeded to flash from red to yellow to green in quick succession.

In the confusion, it appeared several drivers were unsure whether the race had started, or the start had been aborted, with some accelerating towards the first chicane and others backing off.

Double R's Scott Pye clattered into the back of team-mate Pipo Derani's Dallara-Mercedes, putting both out on the spot, while T-Sport's Bart Hylkema wrecked his Dallara-Volkswagen by pin-balling between Brazilian's Lucas Foresti (Fortec) and Felipe Nasr (Carlin).

After marshals had cleared the smashed cars and debris, Buller fended off fellow front row starter Rupert Svendsen-Cook at the restart to take command of the race.

He duly reeled off the laps from the front to win by 1.6 seconds and also claimed the two bonus points on offer for recording the fastest lap.

Hitech's Antonio Felix da Costa delivered another stirring drive to complete the podium. As Kevin Magnussen fought his way past Carlin team-mate Jack Harvey on the opening lap, da Costa drove around the outside of both into the chicane that punctuates the Mistral straight.

Harvey slipped back as low as eighth, as team-mate Carlos Huertas, Foresti, and a slow-starting Nasr both capitalised on the Briton's stalled momentum through Signes and Beausset.

As Fortec's Harry Tincknell then attempted to demote Harvey further on the run into Turn 1, Hitech's Pietro Fantin ran into the back of Harvey, which bounced the Brazilian into Tincknell and knocked Tincknell into a spin.

Tincknell's misery was further compounded by a drive-through penalty for not respecting the track limits at the start, as Harvey eventually battled back past Foresti to round out the top six.

Championship leader Nasr fell to the back end of the top 10 after losing a lot of time through the final part of the circuit on lap two.

He eventually clawed his way back to ninth with a forceful move on the Sino Vision Dallara-Mercedes of Lloyd two laps later, before back row starter Jazeman Jaafar (Carlin) denied Lloyd the final point by going side by side with Welshman through Signes and then driving round the outside of him at Beausset on the penultimate lap.

Results - 6 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team/Car                    Time/Gap
 1.  Will Buller             Fortec Dallara-Merc       12m25.918s
 2.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook    Carlin Dallara-VW           + 1.621s
 3.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Hitech Dallara-VW           + 2.288s
 4.  Kevin Magnussen         Carlin Dallara-VW           + 3.289s
 5.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin Dallara-VW           + 6.186s
 6.  Jack Harvey             Carlin Dallara-VW           + 9.693s
 7.  Lucas Foresti           Fortec Dallara-Merc        + 12.409s
 8.  Pietro Fantin           Hitech Dallara-VW          + 13.009s
 9.  Felipe Nasr             Carlin Dallara-VW          + 14.173s
10.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin Dallara-VW          + 16.888s
11.  Hywel Lloyd             Sino Vision Dallara-Merc   + 18.748s
12.  Menasheh Idafar         T-Sport Dallara-VW         + 19.410s
13.  Adderly Fong            Sino Vision Dallara-Merc   + 20.134s
14.  Yann Cunha              T-Sport Dallara-VW         + 20.958s
15.  Fahmi Ilyas             Fortec Dallara-Merc        + 37.466s
16.  Kotaro Sakurai          Hitch Dallara-Mugen        + 39.201s
17.  Harry Tincknell         Fortec Dallara-Merc        + 50.685s

Unable to take part in restarted race:

     Pipo Derani             Double R Dallara-Merc         0 laps
     Scott Pye               Double R Dallara-Merc         0 laps
     Bart Hylkema            T-Sport Dallara-VW            0 laps