Tom Blomqvist headed home Antonio Giovinazzi in the opening Formula 3 European Championship race at the Red Bull Ring, after Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen tangled at the first corner.
Verstappen got a slightly better start than poleman Ocon and went for the inside line at Turn 1. Ocon appeared to try to leave Verstappen room, but the Dutchman ran wide, sending the Lotus F1 junior spinning towards the barriers.
Ocon rejoined a long way adrift of the field, while Verstappen ran wide and rejoined in sixth place.
That left the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagens of Jagonya Ayam proteges Blomqvist and Giovinazzi at the front. On the ninth lap, Blomqvist made a mistake at the final corner and the Italian drew alongside his Anglo-Swedish team-mate on the run to Turn 3, but Blomqvist held on and pulled away to take victory by four seconds.
“I was kind of there to pick up the pieces,” said Blomqvist. “It’s a relief to get a good result – we’ve always had the pace but we’ve had a few mishaps lately.”
From eighth on the grid, Felix Rosenqvist climbed to third on the opening lap, but came under mid-race pressure from Jake Dennis as the recovering Verstappen closed on both.
A move at half-distance by Dennis at Turn 2 sent Rosenqvist wide, and allowed Verstappen to pass both of them on the exit to take third in his Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-VW.
Verstappen went on to complete the podium, despite damage to his left-front suspension and consequent excessive front-tyre wear.
Dennis finally got the job done on Rosenqvist with seven laps remaining at Turn 3 to make it three Carlin drivers in the top four.
Antonio Fuoco spent most of the second half of the race fending off a joint attack from Gustavo Menezes and Jordan King on his sixth place. While the Italian held on, positions between the American and Brit changed regularly before King lost time on the last lap, dropping to ninth behind Dennis van de Laar.
Lucas Auer made it into the top 10 from his five-place grid-penalty start, a legacy of his collision with King last time out at Moscow Raceway.
Roy Nissany and Sean Gelael had run pretty close to van de Laar and Auer, and this duo narrowly headed the recovering Ocon, who scored no points for his 13th-place finish.
Nicholas Latifi had also run in the top 10, but spun at Turn 2 and later on got involved in a collision with Jules Szymkowiak at the same corner, sending the Dutchman up onto two wheels in the most spectacular exit of the race.
Top-10 qualifier Ed Jones lost seven laps in the pits as the Carlin mechanics attended to a problem, but set lap times on a par with the leaders when he returned to the track.
Results - 24 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Tom Blomqvist Carlin Dallara-VW 34m22.248s
2. Antonio Giovinazzi Carlin Dallara-VW +4.089s
3. Max Verstappen Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW +8.671s
4. Jake Dennis Carlin Dallara-VW +11.750s
5. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc +13.187s
6. Antonio Fuoco Prema Dallara-Merc +15.652s
7. Gustavo Menezes Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW +16.416s
8. Dennis van de Laar Prema Dallara-Merc +20.375s
9. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW +20.970s
10. Lucas Auer Mucke Dallara-Merc +21.531s
11. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc +27.718s
12. Sean Gelael Carlin Dallara-VW +28.487s
13. Esteban Ocon Prema Dallara-Merc +29.038s
14. Felix Serralles West-Tec Dallara-Merc +31.778s
15. Tatiana Calderon Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc +32.554s
16. Hector Hurst West-Tec Dallara Merc +43.387s
17. Alexander Toril T-Sport Dallara-NBE +43.788s
18. Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc +46.608s
19. Alfonso Celis Jr Fortec Dallara-Merc +46.950s
20. John Bryant-Meisner Fortec Dallara-Merc +49.174s
21. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-NBE +53.067s
22. Michele Beretta EuroInternational Dallara-Merc +1m05.641s
Retirements:
Santino Ferrucci EuroInternational Dallara-Merc 19 laps
Ed Jones Carlin Dallara-VW 17 laps
Nicholas Latifi Prema Dallara-Merc 14 laps
Jules Szymkowiak Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 13 laps
