Isack Hadjar took full advantage of a disastrous Silverstone Formula 2 feature race for Paul Aron to establish himself as the new championship leader with his third win of the season.
The Campos driver was forced to work for the win after dropping behind Victor Martins (ART) and Oliver Bearman (Prema) in the opening stages.
Recovering the lead with a bold move on Martins at Abbey, the Frenchman dropped behind Jak Crawford, but was promoted to the top step of the podium once the ART driver had a five-second penalty applied for an unsafe pit release.
With the race taking place in dry conditions, Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport) was the only driver in the top seven starting on the alternate strategy with hard tyres fitted.
But the race struggled to find a rhythm in the opening stages, with a pair of safety car interventions interrupting the flow. The first came as Kush Maini (Invicta) and sprint race winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema) clashed at Village on the opening lap, with the second coming on lap four when former championship leader Paul Aron (Hitech) cut across the nose of Joshua Durksen’s AIX at Woodcote, leaving the latter stranded in the gravel.
Aron received a 10-second penalty for his trouble, a penalty he served when pitting on lap 27 of 29, having stayed out in the hope of late rain or a further safety car.
Colapinto led the charge of those starting on hard tyres and was aided in his push for a podium by the battling of Hadjar, Crawford, Zane Maloney (Rodin) and Martins.
This came to a head when, after Hadjar felt aggrieved at being forced off the track by Martins at Stowe, he got his elbows out at and found a way through at Abbey, causing Martins to use all of the run-off and drop to fourth.
In their stops, Crawford had been released into the path of Maloney, resulting in a five-second penalty – something he was unable to negate, eventually falling 0.165s shy of recovering the margin to Maloney and having to accept the third step on the podium.
Colapinto was rapid on his soft tyres in the closing stages but the margin proved too great, and he finished fourth.
Aron eventually took the flag in 12th and drops back to second in the championship, 16 points off Hadjar after a scoreless weekend. Maloney moves back up to third, on 101 points and just seven back on Aron.
