ART Grand Prix's George Russell stormed to victory at the Red Bull Ring to secure his fourth victory of 2018 and second consecutive Feature Race win.
In qualifying, Russell secured pole position, beating McLaren junior Lando Norris to the top spot on the grid.
Following recent and ongoing clutch problems with the new Dallara F2 2018 car, the race in Austria was started behind the safety car with a rolling start, as opposed to the series' usual standing start.
Russell led from the outset when the green flag waved to signify the start of lap 1, the Briton holding off Norris and Sergio Sette Camara who completed the top three after the opening tour of the circuit.
Following the deployment of a safety car on lap 6 for the stricken MP Motorsport car of Ralph Boschung, the majority of the field peeled into the pits for Formula 2's mandatory pit stop, fronted by Russell.
This handed the lead to Trident's Arjun Maini while the second and third positions were occupied by Sean Gelael and Artem Markelov while Russell rejoined in fourth place.
When the safety car peeled into the pits on lap 8, the battle in the midfield erupted, with positions getting exchanged virtually every lap while Jack Aitken, Maximilian Gunther and Louis Deletraz engaged in a thrilling battle from sixth to eighth.
A subsequent safety car on lap 20 again saw proceedings momentarily paused after ART's Aitken stopped out on track while the action resumed on lap 22, marked by an overtake from Markelov on Maini for the lead after the Russian racer cleared Gelael for second in the running order on lap 14.
With the laps winding down and with Markelov still in the lead, the Renault junior pitted from first place on lap 37 of 40, swapping his soft tyres for a set of supersofts for a final sprint to the finish, subsequently handing Russell the lead once again for the first time since the start of the race.
Taking the chequered flag on lap 40, Russell emerged as the victor, beating Norris to first place and 25 points while the Carlin driver finished in second, clinging onto his lead in the Drivers' Championship by two points as Russell extended his tally to 120.
Antonio Fuoco finished in third place for Charouz Racing System to extend his current points-scoring run to seven races, beating ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi to a spot on the podium in the dying stages of the race, the Spaniard finishing in fourth in the second MP Motorsport car.
Alexander Albon finished in fifth place for DAMS after starting in eighth while Sette Camara secured sixth in the second Carlin after starting from third.
Tadasuke Makino fronted a 7-8 finish for Russian Time, beating former race leader Markelov who will start from pole position for Sunday's Sprint Race after overtaking Santino Ferrucci, Nicholas Latifi and Gunther in Turn 2 on the final lap of the race before clearing Nirei Fukuzumi in the final corner.
Fukuzumi subsequently finished in ninth place for Arden while Ferrucci completed the top 10.
Outside of the points-paying positions, Latifi finished in 11th while Gunther was 12th followed by Luca Ghiotto, Gelael and Maini.
Formula 2's Feature Race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria saw five drivers fail to see the chequered flag, with Deletraz, Aitken, Nyck de Vries, Boschung and Roy Nissany retiring.
