Arthur Leclerc survived a late Safety Car period to clinch victory in Race 1 at Zandvoort in FIA Formula 3.
The younger brother of Grand Prix winner Charles converted his third-place starting spot into a controlled drive to take the second victory of his career.
The start saw reverse-grid pole sitter Amaury Cordeel get swamped by Leclerc and Logan Sargeant, dropping to third by Turn 1.
A tap on the exit of Turn 3 following contact with Alex Smolyar sent the Belgian to the rear of the field. Smolyar suffered damage to his front wing and would pit for repairs and receive a ten-second time penalty for causing the collision.
The top ten after the first six laps were Leclerc, Sargeant, Ayumu Iwasa, Jak Crawford, Caio Collet, Jack Doohan, Victor Martins, Clement Novalak, Dennis Hauger and Frederik Vesti.
The order remained unchanged until Hauger’s attempted pass on Martins for seventh on Lap 14 at Turn 11 saw the Red Bull Junior run through the gravel, which allowed Novalak to swoop through and go up to eighth.
The Safety Car was deployed a couple of laps later following a collision between Johnathan Hoggard and Hunter Yeany on the exit of Turn 1, which both retired after the contact.
Race 1 resumed racing with four laps to go, as Hauger immediately overtook Novalak to go back up to eighth before completing another move on Martins on the next tour at Turn 3 around the outside to elevate himself up to seventh.
Novalak continued to go backwards, as Vesti and Olli Caldwell also nipped past, sending the Frenchman out of the points to 11th.
Leclerc took the chequered flag ahead of Sargeant and Iwasa, with Crawford and Collet in the top five.
Doohan was sixth ahead of his championship rival Hauger in front of Martins, Vesti, and Caldwell rounding out the points scorers.
The gap in the title battle between the top two has shrunk slightly, as Hauger still leads the championship by 28 points over Doohan.
Race 2 of the FIA Formula 3 weekend at Zandvoort begins later this afternoon at 17:55 track time.
