Feature Race: De Vries wins race of attrition in France

Nyck de Vries has won the opening race of the first race of the Formula 2 weekend, finishing five seconds ahead of Sette Camara.

De Vries took the lead into the opening corner of the race, swooping around the outside of three cars as pole sitter Sergio Sette Camara got swallowed by some of his rivals.

A couple of corners ahead, Sean Gelael out-braked himself and viciously hit teammate Mick Schumacher, with but drivers dropping out due to the crash.

There was further contact before the Mistral Straight between Ralph Boschung and Nikita Mazepin, and those two were also eliminated. The virtual safety car was deployed but before the end of the first lap, Dorian Boccolacci stopped on the circuit.

Race control opted to deploy a red flag to clear all the cars, which delayed the race. However, when the race resumed, de Vries took off ahead of Jack Aitken and Sette Camara.

However, de Vries lost the lead of the race in the pit stop phase, as Aitken and Sette Camara pitted one lap before him. 

Aitken took the lead, but de Vries managed to get it back from him soon after, and took off into the distance, setting the fastest lap on his final round to pick up an extra two points.

De Vries now holds the lead in the championship as Nicholas Latifi crossed the line in fifth place, behind the Uni Virtuosi car of Guanyu Zhou.

Jordan King was sixth, heading Juan Manuel Correa, who was involved in a collision with Luca Ghiotto towards the end of the race, which put the latter out.

Correa's teammate Callum Ilott also retired from the race when he came together with Nobuharu Matsushita as they duelled in the final sector. 

After picking up a win in Monaco, Anthoine Hubert secured eighth place and will start Sunday's race from reverse grid pole. Matsushita concluded the race in ninth, while Guiliano Alesi picked up the final point on offer.