Tim Tramnitz became the 12th different F3 race winner this season, breaking his duck in the Monza sprint race, while the championship fight remains wide open heading into tomorrow's finale.
In the penultimate outing of the season, the MP Motorsport driver was a picture of composure, taking a lights to flag victory in a race that saw no changes for the lead, despite the extreme effect of the tow.
Tramnitz’s success was secured with a cool head on the two safety car restarts, where he was able to pull a clear margin over Sebastian Montoya (Campos) on both occasions.
Santiago Ramos (Trident) joined the pair on the podium, claiming the first silverware of his F3 career.
However, with a starting procedure infringement for Tramnitz being investigated after the race, there remains an asterisk over the race result.
Championship combatants Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident), Gabriele Mini (Prema) and Luke Browning (Hitech) were among the raft of grid penalties for qualifying infringements, but Tramnitz's position was unaffected as he lined up on the reversed grid pole.
Leading away from the grid, the Red Bull junior put up an on-the-limit defence on Montoya and Dino Beganovic (Prema) on the run to the Rettifilo chicane amid a cloud of smoke caused by locked brakes.
This dramatic-looking start set the tone for what was to come, although the battles all took place in the mirrors of a controlled Tramnitz.
But the action came to a quick halt, as the safety car was deployed at the end of lap two after Van Amersfoort Racing pair Noel Leon and Tommy Smith tangled with Nikita Bedrin (AIX Racing). For causing the incident, Smith received a 10-second penalty.
Racing resumed on lap six with the championship-leading trio still outside of the points, but points leader Fornaroli was a man on a mission. He made up four places on the restart, then thrust himself into the top 10 one lap later.
This journey reached a peak of seventh, but moments before entering a second safety car period on lap 13, he dropped behind Mari Boya (Campos) as his tyres began to cry enough.
This latest disruption was caused by a clumsy incident at the Rettifilo chicane between Max Esterson and Piotr Wisnicki.
Just as Fornaroli had progressed in the initial safety car restart, Browning strode forward on the second occasion, passing the Italian at the first chicane before overcoming Boya for seventh.
With one race remaining, Fornaroli has a three point lead from Mini, who took one point for finishing 10th, with Browning two further back.
Despite not scoring in 11th, Arvid Lindblad (Prema) remains in with an outside shot of the title, but trails by 21 points.
Fornaroli will start the feature race from pole, with Mini third and Browning seeking to fight back from 13th.
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0.9
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1.3
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Source: Autosport