The Australian fell agonisingly short of victory as a late Safety Car arguably robbed him of the chance to claim a maiden F3 win.

He enjoyed strong pace in the latter laps and was embroiled in a three-way scrap, shuffled to third just seconds before a race-defining Safety Car was deployed.

It left him third in a race where he proved the main protagonist, and arguably fastest in the closing stages.

A good jump saw Mansell draw alongside Stenshorne into the lead as the field headed to Turn 1, moving defensive to hold top spot through the Turn 3 hairpin.

It wasn’t done there as Martinius Stenshorne continued to attack, with Nikola Tsolov also looking to buy in around the outside into the Turn 4 right-hander.

At the end of the opening lap, it left Mansell from Tsolov and Stenshorne at the front of the pack as the Safety Car was called for Kacper Sztuka, who’d stopped at the exit of Turn 1.

Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic also looped it at the first corner, dropping from the top eight to the back of the pack.

The Safety Car was withdrawn at the end of Lap 4, Mansell accelerating away from the pack as he approached the penultimate corner.

He held at half-second lead as he crossed the stripe from his ART team-mate Tsolov, who made no impression at Turn 1 or Turn 3 at the top of the hill.

DRS was enabled as the pack started Lap 7, Tsolov in range of Mansell, homing in on the Australian on the run to Turn 3.

The pair ran side-by-side around the outside of Turn 4, Tsolov bravely hanging around the outside to take the racing line and the lead into the following left-hander.

Mansell slotted into second, comfortably in DRS range.

The Novocastrian was close at the start of Lap 8 but again kept his powder dry as the 29 remaining runners ran in a field-long DRS train from Tsolov out front.

Mansell appeared to have more speed but lacked it in the all-important DRS zones suggesting he was running more downforce than the race leader.

It allowed the 19-year-old to easily run in the wheel tracks of the race leader, suggesting he was playing a waiting game, saving his tyres for a late attempt at regaining the race lead.

He finally made a move at Turn 3 on Lap 15, but quickly handed the lead back at Turn 4 as Tsolov used DRS to draw back alongside and again go the long way around to take the place.

Behind them, an intense scrap between Alex Dunne and Sebastian Montoya delayed the group, turning the lead into a three-way scrap.

Mansell pounced at Turn 4 on Lap 16, taking the inside line and with it the lead, demoting Tsolov to second as Stenshorne maintained a watching brief.

Tsolov attempted to gain top spot at Turn 3 on Lap 17, Mansell reclaiming the spot as the Safety Car was deployed after Montoya suffered a heavy crash on approach to Turn 4.

Montoya had been looking to pass Dunne, the Columbian’s car firing into the inside wall after he dropped a wheel onto the grass, making heavy contact and spinning him around, depositing his car in the middle of the track at Turn 4.

As that happened, Mansell dropped to third behind Tsolov and Stenshorne after he got a slow exit out of Turn 4.

With the field halfway around Lap 17, and with significant damage, the race resumed with just a single lap remaining.

Tsolov held a handy advantage at the restart over Stenshorne, with Mansell locked in fourth without the help of DRS.

The flag fell for Tsolov ahead of Stenshorne, with Mansell third in a race that had the potential to deliver more.