Zanella takes Magny-Cours victory

The Swiss driver spent the opening stages of the race - which started on a wet track - stuck behind Ramon Pineiro in fourth, as polesitter Brundle and Monras pulled away at the front.

But the onset of more light rain at mid-distance changed all that, and Zanella made a decisive move on Pineiro to move into third.

Monras had closed onto the tail of Brundle with a third of the race to go, but was soon forced to defend from Zanella, who wasted no time in going by.

On a slippery track surface, Brundle was powerless to defend and Zanella swept through to the lead and victory.

While this was happening, Tobias Hegewald was steadily making his way through the field from sixth, passing both Will Bratt and Mirko Bortolotti in quick succession, and then carving by Pineiro.

However, by the time he had made moves on Monras and Brundle, Zanella was almost eight seconds up the road and uncatchable by the German.

Brundle's fine third place represented his first F2 podium and came ahead of Monras - who now leads the championship - Pineiro, Bortolotti and series debutant Jon Lancaster.

Jack Clarke wasted a useful qualifying position by twice spinning at the final chicane, while there were also offs for Mikkel Mac and Johannes Theobald - who collided, for Mihai Marinescu and for James Cole.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos  Driver                   Time/Gap
 1.  Christopher Zanella    40m25.650s
 2.  Tobias Hegewald          + 7.937s
 3   Alex Brundle             + 9.382s
 4.  Miki Monras             + 11.707s
 5.  Ramon Pineiro           + 20.978s
 6.  Mirko Bortolotti        + 21.837s
 7.  Jon Lancaster           + 22.492s
 8   Will Bratt              + 33.682s
 9.  Thiemo Storz            + 34.802s
10.  Kelvin Snoeks           + 39.729s
11.  Benjamin Lariche        + 41.477s
12.  Armaan Ebrahim        + 1m02.112s
13.  Jack Clarke           + 1m03.515s
14.  Johannes Theobald     + 1m14.960s
15.  Mikkel Mac            + 1m24.504s
16   Maxim Snegirev        + 1m28.439s
17   Julian Theobald       + 1m43.841s
18.  James Cole            + 1m46.974s
19.  Sung-Hak Mun              + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Jose Luis Abadin          17 laps
     Natalia Kowalska          16 laps
     Plamen Kralev               1 lap
     Mihai Marinescu            0 laps