Monza F3 Sprint: Taito Kato takes maiden win in incident-filled race

Written by Liam Ploetner

Feature Image Credit: Formula 3

Taito Kato took his maiden victory in F3 for ART from ninth place on the grid in a chaotic race. He beat Freddie Slater and Hiyu Yamakoshi to the win.

On pole for the F3 Sprint at Monza was home hero Rodin’s Brando Badoer, who was promoted to Sprint pole after compatriot Matteo De Palo was disqualified from qualifying. 

The top 12 on the grid was Badoer, his Rodin teammate Pedro Clerot, MP Motorsport’s Tuukka Taponen, AIX’s Fernando Barrichello, MP’s Alessandro Giusti, Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR)’s Hiyu Yamakoshi, MP’s Mattia Colnaghi, Campos’ Ernesto Rivera, ART’s Taito Kato, DAMS’ Nicola Lacorte, ART’s Kanato Le and Trident’s Freddie Slater. Audi-supported Slater leads the championship by eight points from Campos’ Ugo Ugochukwu coming into the final four races of the season.

Poor performances from Ugochukwu, his Campos teammate Théophile Naël and Noah Strømsted left the trio 23rd, 28th and 16th for both races.

Alex Powell started 24th in his first F3 race after replacing Louis Sharp at Prema. The American is sixth in Eurocup-3 currently.

Opening Laps

When the five lights went out, it was a strong start from Badoer, who led Clerot and Taponen into turn one.

Several drivers ran wide into turn one, cutting the chicane, but no one went straight on through the run off. At turn three, Kanato Le went wide, but followed the race director’s instructions. Giusti cleared Barrichello for fourth, while Rivera had made up two spots to sixth. Yamakoshi was seventh, Kato eighth, Le ninth, Colnaghi 10th, del Pino 11th and Slater 12th.

Badoer and DAMS’ Gerrard Xie both went deep into turn one, as did AIX’s Ricardo Escotto, who had to use the run-off.

After two laps, a DRS train ran from first down to last. Badoer ran wide after the Ascari chicane, which gifted Clerot the lead coming onto lap three. The MP duo behind Badoer of Taponen and Giusti were both in the mirrors of the Italian.

Meanwhile, Ugochukwu and De Palo had made up two spots, Naël had made up six and Strømsted had dropped down to 20th from 16th.

At the end of lap three, Taponen made a move on Badoer into Parabolica. Giusti made a move for second, and chaos erupted at the front coming into turn one. The DRS, combined with slipstream, caused a massive incident which ended Barrichello's race. 

Badoer had picked up major front wing damage. Replays showed that Badoer had squeezed Barrichello onto the grass before the braking zone. Barrichello lost a tyre and couldn’t brake strongly, meaning the frontrunners had to take avoiding action, which included Taponen going through the run-off after picking up damage from the collision. Giusti inherited the race lead from the chaos, but cut the turn one chicane. 

Now the top ten was Giusti, Clerot, Rivera, Kato, Yamakoshi, Colnaghi, Slater, Le, Wharton and David. Strømsted, Ugochukwu and Naël were together, running 17th, 18th and 19th. Badoer and Taponen were now at the back. The race restarted coming onto lap seven. 

Kato passed Rivera, as did Colnaghi on Yamakoshi into turn one. In the mid-pack, there were a number of incidents which resulted in ART’s Maciej Gładysz retiring. Strømsted dropped down to 25th as a result. The famous adage ‘cautions breed cautions’ once again was coming to the forefront as a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) came out. Now Ugochukwu was 15th, with Naël 16th.

Colnaghi almost hit his fellow Red Bull junior Rivera into turn one, locking up and going through the run-off. Le went off at turn three for the second time, dropping down to 10th. Colnaghi was now down to eighth.

Second half of the race

Clerot took the lead on the VSC restart. Rivera passed Yamakoshi for fourth, with Slater now up into sixth place. Naël picked up 15 places in nine laps. Kato and Yamakoshi both made moves into Parabolica for second and fourth. Race leader Clerot suffered an engine failure mid-straight, but that wasn’t the main concern.

Hitech’s Michael Shin and Xie had a massive collision into the first corner. Both drivers came out of their cars unscathed. The Safety Car came back out. In all the chaos, Giusti now led Yamakoshi, Kato, Rivera, Slater, Colnaghi, Wharton, David, del Pino and Deligny. Giusti and Yamakoshi passed Kato for first and second.

Five drivers were out of the race - Shin, Xie, Clerot, Gładysz and Barrichello. Badoer received a five-second penalty for the collision with Barrichello.

At the end of lap 13, the race got back underway. Rivera and Kato went side-by-side into turn one, with Rivera going off. Slater used the opportunity to move into fourth. Wharton dropped down to eighth, while Le had a poor restart and dropped to 14th. Wharton was having a bad day and now was 11th, with Naël now in tenth. Naël was battling the VAR duo of Deligny and del Pino, as well as Wharton, who repassed Naël for 10th. 

The top four had separated from the second pack of Rivera, Colnaghi and David. Naël once again passed Wharton but couldn’t make it stick. Taponen had come into the pits to retire. The top four’s battle was getting spicy. Slater overtook Giusti on the grass, with the Williams junior dropping from first to fourth in the matter of a straight. Kato now led Yamakoshi in a Japanese 1-2.

Rivera went through the run off at turn one, dropping out of the battle for fifth. Slater was on a charge, and passed Yamakoshi for second. There was now two laps left. David locked up into turn one, but still managed to pass Colnaghi for fifth. Slater was repassed by Yamakoshi for second.

Le came into the pits with issues. The top ten was Kato, Yamakoshi, Slater, Giusti, David, Colnaghi, Rivera, Deligny, del Pino and Lacorte coming on the last lap.

Slater got up to second again, and was chasing Kato down. Giusti and Yamakoshi battled for the final spot on the podium, with the latter making the move into the Roggia chicane for third.

Slater ran wide into Ascari, which gave Kato a margin. David drove a brilliant race to move up to fourth.

Kato took his first win in F3, with Slater second and Yamakoshi third. David, Giusti, Colnaghi, Rivera, Deligny, Lacorte and del Pino made up the rest of the top ten.