From pole Arthur Leclerc (PREMA Powerteam) started badly and was overtaken by team mate Gianluca Petecof and also attacked by Oliver Rasmussen. Then after the first corner the order settled down to Petecof, Rasmussen, Leclerc, Lappalainen and Pasma. In an attempt to attack Petecof, Rasmussen ended up on the grass at San Donato and that let Leclerc back through.

He then set about attacking Petecof most aggressively, getting past and rapidly leaving his Brazilian rival, who had been shown the black and white driving standards flag after a clash with Rasmussen. Behind the first three, in very close order, were Lappalainen, Pasma, Famularo, Chovet and Vips.

Leclerc and Petecof both set off to open a gap to Rasmussen who was around 4 seconds behind by now. The gap between Leclerc and Petecof remained at around a second.

Further back there was a great battle between Gillian Henrion (Gillian Track Events) and Emidio Pesce (DR Formula) but all eyes were on Leclerc.

Meanwhile, Vips entered the pits with technical problems, finally returning to the track very late and dead last before retiring from the race.

In the meantime Pasma passed Lappalainen, while Henrion made a mistake at Scarperia and Pesce took advantage of it by snatching ninth place.

AT the front Petecof had caught Leclerc and was just 3 tenths off the leader, but that stretched back out to 7 tenths, while elsewhere Alessandro Famularo (Van Amersfort Racing) came under attack from his teammate Pierre-Louis Chovet.

Leclerc’s win confirmed him as the new championship leadership with 237 points, while Petecof was second, and also second in the championship with 229 points, ahead of third-placed on the road and in the points Rasmussen, who now has 178 points.