Pau F3: Barnicoat gets back-to-back wins after Stroll stalls

Promoted to the front row by a host of penalties, Barnicoat stormed into the lead off the line as poleman Lance Stroll bogged down massively.

Points leader Maximilian Gunther moved up to second, but had no answer for Barnicoat's early pace in the rain, the gap between the two growing with each lap until it settled at around six seconds.

And then it was gone in an instant, Carlin's Peter Li Zhi Cong crashing out on lap 8 and bringing out the safety car.

However, instead of challenging Barnicoat at the restart, Gunther fell prey to teammate Nick Cassidy, the Kiwi pulling off an audacious move round the outside before Turn 1.

In the second part of the race, Cassidy would not let Barnicoat escape quite as easily, but the Briton maintained his pace and ended up comfortably ahead by the chequered flag.

Gunther held off George Russell for third place, with Callum Ilott picking up fifth.

It was sixth place for Mucke's Mikkel Jensen, ahead of Ryan Tveter, Red Bull junior Sergio Sette Camara, a recovering Stroll and Alessio Lorandi.

Series newcomer David Beckmann finished the race in 17th.

Race results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Ben Barnicoat	HitechGP
2	Nick Cassidy	Prema Powerteam	2.489
3	Maximilian Gunther	Prema Powerteam	5.318
4	George Russell	HitechGP	7.034
5	Callum Ilott	Van Amersfoort Racing	8.156
6	Mikkel Jensen	kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport	16.707
7	Ryan Tveter	Carlin	17.997
8	Sergio Sette Camara	Motopark	22.166
9	Lance Stroll	Prema Powerteam	22.956
10	Alessio Lorandi	Carlin	26.906
11	Guan Yu Zhou	Motopark	30.07
12	Anthoine Hubert	Van Amersfoort Racing	30.803
13	Ralf Aron	Prema Powerteam	31.856
14	Joel Eriksson	Motopark	33.052
15	Harrison Newey	Van Amersfoort Racing	35.617
16	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	36.351
17	David Beckmann	kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport	39.666
18	Arjun Maini	ThreeBond with T-Sport	1:01.388
19	Niko Kari	Motopark	1 Lap
20	Pedro Piquet	Van Amersfoort Racing	1 Lap
Ret	Zhi Cong Li	Carlin