Prema driver Charles Leclerc took his second win and first feature race triumph of the 2017 Formula 2 season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The Ferrari junior driver led away at the start but Russian Time’s Luca Ghiotto dived up the inside at Turn 4, only to slide wide and give first place back to Leclerc.
The Frenchman went on to extend his lead to 2.1 seconds before pitting for hard tyres at the end of the seventh lap.
A safety car to clear Sergio Canamasas’s Trident bunched up the pack, with Leclerc down in 12th at the time due to other cars staying out.
He started to fight back, while ART’s Alexander Albon and DAMS racer Oliver Rowland battled over the race lead.
Rowland found his way through and started to eke out an advantage, before pitting for soft tyres and falling down to seventh.
Leclerc moved back into first place and took victory; 3.7 seconds clear of Ghiotto. Rowland charged back to third place on his fresh and softer tyres.
Nobuharu Matsushita was fourth after pulling off a similar strategy to the leading two drivers, but lost out to Rowland on his quicker tyres.
Albon was fifth, ahead of Nicholas Latifi and Gustav Malja. Artem Markelov, Jordan King and Ralph Boschung completed the top 10.
McLaren junior Nyck de Vries was 11th, while Leclerc’s team-mate Antonio Fuoco was 14th following earlier contact with Roberto Merhi and Markelov.
Alongside Canamasas, ex-F1 driver Merhi was the only other driver to not finish the race after stopping in the pits.
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