Oliver Bearman scored his first System 2 victory since final 12 months’s Monza characteristic within the Purple Bull Ring dash race, the Prema driver convincingly main all 28 laps.
Having pulled away from DRS vary within the early levels, Ferrari junior Bearman efficiently managed the hole on the entrance to win by 1.7s whilst Pepe Marti (Campos) edged again inside vary within the closing levels.
The Briton took benefit of polesitter Kush Maini struggling to realize traction off the beginning, which dropped the Invicta driver to third on the opening lap as Marti additionally leapt forward.
Championship challenger Isack Hadjar additionally endured a troublesome begin, an error on the opening lap dropping his Campos machine from fourth to twelfth. Unable to get better, he completed out of the factors in thirteenth.
Throughout the period, Maini discovered himself performing as a rolling roadblock. His team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, championship chief Paul Aron (Hitech), Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) and Jack Crawford (DAMS) all discovered methods previous as he slid again to finally end seventh.
Carrying entrance wing injury after contact with Maini on the opening lap, Marti did properly to fend off the late attentions of Aron for second place, though the Estonian rookie continued his spectacular streak of ending on the rostrum at each race weekend of the season.
In a race that won’t go down as a basic, the one incident of actual word got here on the final lap, as the 2 MP Motorsport drivers clashed on the exit of Flip 3.
Battling over fifth, Franco Colapinto made a daring DRS-assisted lunge on Hauger, however ran his team-mate off the monitor and over the sausage kerbs, earlier than shedding the rear of his personal automotive when making an attempt to place down the ability. This brought on the Argentinian to spin and make contact with the boundaries, earlier than recovering to complete eleventh.
Bearman’s victory additionally marked Prema’s first podium of the season, that means all 11 groups have now featured within the prime three this time period.
Robust afternoons for Hadjar and Zane Maloney (Rodin) allowed Aron to increase his championship result in 15 factors.