Dan Ticktum led a Motopark 1-2 in the second European Formula 3 race at Spa as the Prema squadron collapsed.
The Italian team locked out the front two rows of the grid, but couldn’t make it to the first corner before drama unfolded.
Pole sitter Mick Schumacher made a poor start, allowing Ralf Aron into the lead and Guanyu Zhou to pull alongside him. Schumacher tried to get ahead of Zhou with a move around the outside, briefly clipping his team-mate and damaging the front of Zhou’s car.
Schumacher limped back to the pits with a puncture, where he retired. After a nose change, Zhou returned to the track, but later came in to retire.
At the front of the order, Juri Vips passed Aron for the race lead. Aron fought back and had almost pulled ahead of the Motopark driver when Vips tried to duck into his slip stream. Aron wasn’t completely ahead of Vips, though, and the pair made contact, sending Aron into a spin and prompting two more retirements.
Fabio Scherer, who started seventh, was promoted to the race lead, ahead of Robert Shvartzman and Ticktum. The Swiss racer began to build a gap to the battling duo but, once Ticktum had breezed past Shvartzman to claim P2, the gap quickly closed again.
Scherer and Ticktum swapped positions a number of times, taking it in turns to benefit from the slip stream. Ticktum managed to break the tow while his team-mate battled with Jehan Daruvala, who had climbed up to third from 12th on the grid.
Ticktum took the chequered flag 1.483s ahead of Scherer, taking the championship lead in the process.
Daruvala took the battle for second right to the chequered flag but had to settle for third.
Shvartzman held onto fourth ahead of Enaam Ahmed and Marcus Armstrong, who had dropped to 12th on the opening lap.
Sacha Fenestraz finished seventh after a tough battle with Ben Hingley and Nikita Troitckii.
Hingley fell backwards in the closing stages of the race, leaving Troitckii to claim eighth ahead of Jonathan Aberdein and Fernand Habsburg.
