Paul Ricard F3: Gunther survives last-corner charge from Cassidy to win

Unlike yesterday, when he had bogged down dramatically off the line, Gunther had a good getaway and was into the lead, quickly building a gap of a second over Cassidy.

The Prema duo were soon joined rookie by Joel Eriksson, the Swede pulling off a couple of overtakes on Ralf Aron and Mikkel Jensen.

However, Eriksson was unable to disrupt the Prema 1-2, despite putting some pressure on Cassidy for a handful of laps.

Instead, Cassidy then caught up with Gunther in the final laps and tried a last-ditch effort at the very last turn of the race, lunging to the inside of Gunther.

That forced Gunther to run wide but the German kept his foot on the gas pedal and still made it home in first.

Having failed to keep up with the leading trio, Jensen spent the majority of the race holding off Lance Stroll and Harrison Newey, the Williams-bound Canadian settling for fifth.

Newey was also set to take sixth but came under pressure from Van Amersfoort teammate Anthoine Hubert.

The duo went side-by-side into a left-hander and collided, Newey spinning out.

Hubert finished a provisional sixth, with Aron settling for seventh despite running fourth during the early laps.

Motopark's Guan Yu Zhou, Carlin's Alessio Lorandi and top Hitech driver Nikita Mazepin completed the top 10.

George Russell, who started last after his exclusion from qualifying, made up several places at the start but was forced to pit with front wing damage.

Race 3 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Maximilian Gunther	Prema Powerteam	-
2	Nick Cassidy	Prema Powerteam	0.251
3	Joel Eriksson	Motopark	1.312
4	Mikkel Jensen	kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport	10.128
5	Lance Stroll	Prema Powerteam	10.827
6	Anthoine Hubert	Van Amersfoort Racing	11.062
7	Ralf Aron	Prema Powerteam	13.574
8	Guan Yu Zhou	Motopark	14.300
9	Alessio Lorandi	Carlin	17.326
10	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	20.103
11	Ben Barnicoat	HitechGP	21.664
12	Callum Ilott	Van Amersfoort Racing	22.546
13	Raoul Hyman	Carlin	22.798
14	Harrison Newey	Van Amersfoort Racing	26.584
15	Niko Kari	Motopark	29.884
16	Arjun Maini	ThreeBond with T-Sport	32.971
17	Zhi Cong Li	Carlin	42.422
18	George Russell	HitechGP	1:06.659
19	Sergio Sette Camara	Motopark	2 Laps
Ret	Ryan Tveter	Carlin
Ret	Pedro Piquet	Van Amersfoort Racing