Vidales resists Crawford to take F3 sprint race victory in Barcelona

However, Vidales' win is in doubt with an incident with Crawford under investigation after the Spaniard allegedly ran the American off the track when the pair battled for the lead into Turn 1 on Lap 12.

Crawford attempted to go around the outside of Vidales into the first corner but was forced to cut the corner, bouncing over the sausage kerb at Turn 1.

The Prema driver was unable to mount a charge in the subsequent laps, dropping to over 1.5s behind before closing up again to 1.2s by Lap 20.

The incident will go to the stewards' room to determine whether Vidales didn't leave adequate space for Crawford.

The likeliest penalty - should the stewards feel one is necessary - is a five-second penalty for Vidales, which would drop him to second as Caio Collet finished 6.4s off the lead in third.

Collet got past Juan Manuel Correa to secure the podium ahead of Arthur Leclerc, who left it late to charge from seventh up to fourth.

Correa ultimately dropped to fifth - a strong result after missing the last round, with Aleksandr Smolyar, Kaylen Frederick and Roman Stanek - who will start Sunday's feature race from pole position - rounded out the top eight.

Reece Ushijima was a strong ninth ahead of Red Bull F1 junior Isack Hadjar in the Hitech Grand Prix.

Click here for the full FIA Formula 3 results from the sprint race in Barcelona