Rodin Motorsport's Alex Ninovic survived two safety car restarts to claim his second GB3 win of the year in race one at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday morning.
Ninovic led every lap despite plenty of drama and jeopardy, with VRD Racing's Hugo Schwarze securing his second podium of the season in second, withstanding a final lap lunge from Elite's Will Macintyre, which promoted Hillspeed's Kanato Le from sixth at the start of the lap to third.
Australian driver Ninovic made a good start from pole position, and built a comfortable lead on the opening lap, but saw his initial advantage wiped out at the end of the tour with Divy Nandan's JHR Developments car stranded with damage at Les Combes.
Racing resumed on lap four, and Ninovic immediately pulled out a lead of over a second, moving away from any potential DRS attack, and stretching that gap to over a second and a half before the safety car was deployed again, following a tangle at La Source between Xcel Motorsport's Jack Sherwood and Hitech TGR's Nikita Johnson.
Racing resumed at the start of lap nine, which would prove to be the final tour, and while Ninovic once more established a gap, behind there was chaos in the fight for the remaining podium positions.
After losing second place on the first lap to Noah Lisle, VRD Racing's Hugo Schwarze reclaimed the spot, but came under big attack at Les Combes on the final lap as Macintyre, who had climbed up to third after the first restart went for second place.
Macintyre drew alongside up the Kemmel Straight, but the pair made contact at Les Combes, forcing Schwarze to bounce through the run-off area while Macintyre was delayed. Le also took to the run off area as he challenged Rodin's Gianmarco Pradel and JHR's Noah Lisle for fourth.
Le moved past Macintyre for third at Bruxelles to secure third, while Lisle blasted around the outside of Macintyre at Blanchimont on the last lap to take the chequered flag in fourth, with Macintyre demoted to fifth.
With all that going on, Ninovic was able to extend his lead to 2.3 seconds on the final lap, with Schwarze and Le separated by just a couple of tenths.
Lisle and Macintyre were split by half a second at the flag, with Pradel settling for sixth having also been firmly in the mix.
Pre-race championship leader Patrick Heuzenroeder was seventh for Xcel Motorsport. In an extraordinary finish, he headed a photo finish ahead of JHR's Kai Daryanani, Hitech TGR's Deagen Fairclough and Hillspeed's Freddie Slater, the quartet covered by 0.145 seconds!
As anticipated, the latter pair were the big movers of the race. Fairclough surged from 22nd on the grid after his qualifying crash to finish ninth, while Slater went from 23rd to complete the top-10, though he could have had it even better, having started the final lap a place higher
The second race of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps is due to commence at 17.25 local time (16.25 UK), with Le on pole position.
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Spa-Francorchamps race one provisional result:
1. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport, 9 laps
2. Hugo Schwarze, VRD Racing, +2.351s
3. Kanato Le, Hillspeed, +2.561s
4. Noah Lisle, JHR Developments, +4.785s
5. Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport, +5.265s
6. Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport, +5.720s
7. Patrick Heuzenroeder, Xcel Motorsport, +6.347s
8. Kai Daryanani, JHR Developments, +6.428s
9. Deagen Fairclough, Hitech TGR, +6.452s
10. Freddie Slater, Hillspeed, +6.492s
11. Hiyu Yamakoshi, Hillspeed, +6.811s
12. Reza Seewooruthun, Argenti with Prema, +7.120s
13. Lucas Fluxa, Argenti with Prema, +7.205s
14. Yuanpu Cui, Argenti with Prema, +8.229s
15. Dion Gowda, Xcel Motorsport, +8.453s
16. Keanu Al Azhari, Hitech TGR, +8.628s
17. Abbi Pulling, Rodin Motorsport, +9.056s
18. Bianca Bustamante, Elite Motorsport, +9.387s
19. Stefan Bostandjiev, Fortec Motorsports, +11.381s
20. Flynn Jackes, Elite Motorsport, +11.412s
DNF. Jack Sherwood, Xcel Motorsport, 6 laps
DNF. Nikita Johnson, Hitech TGR, 6 laps
DNF. Divy Nandan, JHR Developments, 0 laps