Doriane Pin won a dramatic first F1 Academy race from Britain’s Ella Lloyd in Montreal and took the lead of the championship.
Pin started from third but capitalised on Campos team-mates Chloe Chambers and Alisha Palmowski colliding at the start of the second lap.
Pole-sitter Chambers was defending from Palmoswki into the first corner but the latter locked up and went into the side of her team-mate, going into a spin.
Chambers carried on with front wing damage then had a thrilling lead battle with Pin that lasted for over a lap as the pair switched positions after nearly every corner.
However, Chambers’ wing damage got worse so she was forced to pit. She battled back to ninth, scoring two points.
Pin was cruising in front until two Safety Cars for Mathilda Paatz crashing at the last corner, then chaos on the restart when Rafaela Ferreira re-joined the track unsafely and hit Chloe Chong, who then went into the back of Joanne Ciconte at the hairpin.
It meant the race ended under a Safety Car as Pin beat Lloyd and Emma Felbermayr was third.
Maya Weug was the championship leader coming into the weekend but has suffered electrical issues throughout the event and is now 24 points behind Pin.
If MP Motorsport are unable to resolve the problem, Weug’s title chances could be all but over as there are two more races in Montreal.
The second race of the weekend will take place later on Saturday at 7.30pm with Sunday’s main race at 3.50pm, live on Sky Sports F1.