Red Bull Ring F2: Markelov wins, Leclerc collides with teammate

Pole-sitter Markelov kept the lead off the line but fellow front-row starter Ralph Boschung bogged down.

Almost all the field flew past the Swiss before series returnee Raffaele Marciello hit the back of the Campos car.

While Boschung then managed to leave the grid, Marciello retired on the spot, bringing out the safety car.

After the restart, Leclerc immediately made a move on Jordan King for fifth and ran behind his teammate Antonio Fuoco, who was attacking Oliver Rowland.

However, Fuoco was slightly forced wide by Rowland on the exit of Schlossgold. The Italian lost momentum and Leclerc was unable to avoid him, the Monegasque spinning out into retirement.

Fuoco complained on the radio about Rowland and the Briton was investigated for changing directions more than once, but no penalty was assessed.

After a short subsequent virtual safety car period, Markelov was leading Alexander Albon and Rowland by more than two seconds.

The gap remained largely unchanged for the rest of the race as Markelov crossed the line to take his second win of the season by 1.4s.

Albon was closely followed by Rowland for the most of the race, the duo temporarily joined by Fuoco before the Italian started losing pace towards the end.

While Albon and Rowland eventually completed the podium, Fuoco dropped behind Luca Ghiotto, who took fourth from 14th on the grid.

Ghiotto had been involved in an incident with Gustav Malja right after the end of the VSC following Leclerc's retirement. The Italian made contact with the Swede, who had to run through the gravel and pit with damage.

Fuoco had to settle for fifth ahead of MP's Jordan King.

Nicholas Latifi crossed the line in seventh, but a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane saw him drop to eighth.

That promoted Norman Nato to seventh, the Frenchman having fought through from last place and also taking advantage of a clash between Robert Visoiu and Nyck de Vries with three laps remaining.

The Romanian tried to pass De Vries at Turn 4 but, with the latter turning in, Visoiu ran out of room, slid through the grass on the inside of the corner and hit his rival.

The top 10 was completed by Sergio Canamasas and Sergio Sette Camara with Sean Gelael, who spun at Remus on the opening lap, finishing 11th.

Sprint race results

Cla	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME
2	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	1.400
3	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	2.000
4	Luca Ghiotto	RUSSIAN TIME	5.800
5	Antonio Fuoco	Prema Powerteam	6.600
6	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	10.500
7	Norman Nato	Arden International	13.600
8	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	15.900
9	Sergio Canamasas	Rapax	15.900
10	Sergio Sette Camara	MP Motorsport	16.200
11	Sean Gelael	Arden International	18.800
12	Nabil Jeffri	Trident	20.900
13	Louis Deletraz	Racing Engineering	21.300
14	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	22.400
15	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	1'07.900
	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	2 laps
	Robert Visoiu	Campos Racing	3 laps
	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	13 laps
	Charles Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	24 laps
	Raffaele Marciello	Trident	28 laps