Roman Stanek took the win in the Formula 2 Sprint in Australia after original victor Isack Hadjar was handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision at the start.
Dennis Hauger, who claimed pole position for tomorrow’s Feature race, was promoted to second, while Hadjar’s misdemeanour also gifted a podium to Kush Maini.
The drama started within an instant of the lights going out, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Pepe Martí making contact and ending up at the pit lane exit and out of the race.
The fast-starting Hadjar had been responsible for the chain reaction, with the Frenchman having triggered the touch when he endeavoured to nudge ahead of Stanek.
That incident brought out the Safety Car as the unwounded car of Hadjar led from Stanek and Paul Aron, while Victor Martins had climbed eight places from the back.
Although changing compounds is not necessitated in the shorter-length races, Hitech Pulse-Eight elected to roll the dice to pit Amuary Cordeel onto a set of Soft tyres.
Racing resumed once more on Lap 6 and the intense fight for positions witnessed championship leader Zane Maloney end up in the gravel at Turn 7, dropping to 10th.
Back at the front, Hadjar proceeded to open a sizeable gap to the rest of the field and appeared set to streak clear to a comfortable win to halt his challenging season.
However, Lap 11 saw the second Safety Car deployed as Prema driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli lost his car and spun alongside Richard Verschoor in their fight for third.
Meanwhile, Paul Aron crashed into Verschoor’s car and damaged his front wing. His race worsened when he went into the gravel on the restart with his wounded car.
Shortly after the race resumed, though, the yellow flags would appear as Durksen ventured off-track; however, he managed to recover back onto the racing line intact.
Hadjar posted the fastest lap of the race on Lap 17 to extend his lead once more, while behind him, both MP Motorsport cars were gaining ground on Maini for third.
As Hauger sought to keep team-mate Franco Colapinto behind, the Norwegian overtook Maini on Lap 22 to set himself on course for a podium finish in Melbourne.
Further behind in the midfield, Martins managed to pass team-mate Zak O’Sullivan to progress into seventh as his climb through the order continued at a rapid rate.
Oliver Bearman was also bidding to salvage points from a low starting berth and the Briton, who made his Formula 1 debut in Saudi Arabia, moved into the top eight.
However, Bearman later received a 10-second time drop for forcing Durksen off the track at Turn 4, relegating the Prema driver down to 14th place and without points.
Despite seeing the chequered flag in the lead, Hadjar was then demoted to sixth as the FIA Stewards found him at predominant fault for the contentious Lap 1 collision.
Therefore, Stanek was promoted to his maiden F2 win with Trident, with Haugher second and Maini third. Colapinto was fourth, handing MP Motorsport a good points haul.
Ritomo Miyata secured a top-five finish in his debut F2 campaign, ahead of the penalised Hadjar, the recovering Martins and team-mate O’Sullivan to round out the top eight.
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