Mercedes Formula 1 junior George Russell has claimed his third victory of the 2017 GP3 season after battling back to win the feature event at Spa-Francorchamps.
Russell developed a winning margin of 7.4 seconds to head an ART 1-2-3, with Renault academy prospect Jack Aitken finishing 0.4s ahead of Honda protege Nirei Fukuzumi.
The winner started the 17-lap race from pole but fell to second at the end of the long Kemmel Straight as Fukuzumi passed his team-mate on the opening lap.
After a virtual safety car period for the stranded Bruno Baptista, Russell closed the gap to the Japanese and claimed the lead again on lap five after using DRS down the same straight.
This would not end the intra-team battling for position as Aitken drew side-by-side with Fukuzumi across the straight two laps later before getting the move done following the next right-handed Les Combes and Malmedy turns.
Fukuzumi hit back with three to go, passing around the outside of the right-handed Bus Stop chicane to start the penultimate lap in second.
Aitken reclaimed the runners-up spot going into the Les Combes section of track after catching his rival.
The race would not be fully perfect for ART as after starting 17th on the grid, Anthoine Hubert retired on lap five to become the fourth and final of its drivers to suffer a failure while racing this season.
Haas development driver Arjun Maini completed the race in a lonely fourth position.
Dorian Boccolacci led a trio of Trident cars in fifth, above Ryan Tveter and Ferrari academy racer Giuliano Alesi – son of ex-F1 driver Jean.
Julien Falchero took eighth, with Red Bull driver Niko Kari and Kevin Joerg completing the top-10.
Juan Manuel Correa was classified 15th on his racing debut in the series.
Campos’ Marcos Siebert retired from the race with suspension issue after running as high as ninth.
DAMS suffered an awful race after promising showings in practice and qualifying as all three of its cars suffered dramas.
Tatiana Calderon stalled from 10th on the grid at the beginning, while Matthieu Vaxiviere quickly fell from fifth to outside of the top-10.
The Frenchman then suddenly slowed on the second lap before pitting and later retiring.
Calderon was then involved in an incident with team-mate Baptista on the following lap, going across the kerb at Les Combes and sliding into the left-hand sidepod of the Brazilian.
Baptista could not avoid ending his race with his front wing in the barriers, an incident which prompted the stewards to award Calderon a 10-second time penalty that dropped her to 16th and last in the final results.
