Red Bull Ring F2: Leclerc beats Latifi to fourth win of 2017 season

Ferrari Formula 1 junior Leclerc, whose Prema team opted to put both its drivers on the soft tyres for a long opening stint, triumphed over DAMS driver Nicholas Latifi, who charged up the order after starting the race on the less durable super-soft rubber.

Leclerc's Prema team-mate Antonio Fuoco held on to take his first podium of the season, with Oliver Rowland half a second behind him at the chequered flag.

Leclerc led away from pole in front of Fuoco while Rowland dropped from fourth to sixth behind Latifi and Nobuharu Matsushita.

The Briton was shuffled further down the order by Artem Markelov as he and Latifi got the less sustainable super-soft stint out of the way.

The DAMS pair pitted on laps seven and eight of the 40-lap event as Leclerc and Fuoco began to edge clear of Albon and Matsushita.

At the front, Leclerc gradually pulled away from his team-mate and cemented his advantage as the stint wore on, while Rowland set about catching and passing Latifi once they switched to the softs.

As the long-running leaders - plus Markelov, Sergio Sette Camara and Raffaele Marciello - eked out the length of their first stint, Rowland and Latifi began setting fastest laps as they made the most of their fresh rubber.

That pace enabled Rowland to jump Fuoco when the Italian rookie pitted for his super-softs with 10 laps remaining, as he also vaulted ART's third-place starter Alexander Albon, Matsushita and Markelov.

Leclerc, who had pulled out a comfortable seven second lead at the head of the pack by the time of his own stop on lap 31, rejoined in first without issue.

Fuoco looked likely to regain second from Rowland when he got his super-softs up to temperature and he did just that with a move down the inside of the uphill right-hander of Turn 3 with seven laps remaining.

But the Prema driver could not pull away and he came under severe pressure from Latifi, who himself had demoted Rowland to fourth on lap 36, and the Canadian seized second with a move up the inside at Turn 1 with two tours remaining.

Rowland then closed back in on the struggling Fuoco, but ran out of laps to get onto the podium.

Latifi closed in to just 1.3s behind Leclerc at the flag, but the Monegasque driver's fourth win of 2017 was never seriously threatened.

Albon finished fifth ahead of Matsushita, Ralph Boschung, Markelov and Jordan King, while Sean Gelael rounded out the top 10 for Arden.

McLaren F1 junior Nyck de Vries recovered to 13th after he failed to move away from his sixth place grid spot on the formation lap.

Sette Camara finished 16th, while the returning Marciello ended up 19th and last.

The only non-finisher was Norman Nato, who stopped on the pit straight during the early laps when "something broke" on his car.

FEATURE RACE RESULT - 40 LAPS: