The Bulgarian lion roars - Tsolov storms to victory in F3 feature race at Monaco

Written By Trisha Lynnette

Credit: Formula 3 via X

The Feature Race got underway at 08:00 CEST (6:00 GMT) with Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing taking the win at Monaco, alongside Roman Bilinski of Rodin Motorsport at P2 and Mari Boya, also of Campos, taking P3. 

The drivers lined up on track in the order they qualified on Friday, Tsolov at pole position followed by Bilinski and Boya. James Hedley of AIX Racing had to withdraw from the Feature Race due to a hand injury sustained from contact in the Sprint Race.

The drivers began with their formation lap as they attempted to warm their tyres on the low degradation track of Monaco. The drivers were lined up once again on the start finish straight ready to race as the lights went off. Tsolov had a good start off the line as Boya attempted to overtake Bilinski while facing pressure from Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport. Rafael Câmara of Trident - championship leader, had contact with the rear of an ART Grand Prix car. 

On lap 2 DRS was enabled for the drivers. Bruno Del Pino of MP Motorsport entered the pits and retired. This was due to a collision between Del Pino and Nicola Marinangeli of AIX Racing at turn 11, which was noted by the stewards. Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport and Noel Léon of PREMA Racing were also noted for a collision at turn 2.

Lap 5, Théophile Naël of Van Amersfoort Racing set the fastest lap before it was reclaimed by Boya. Tsolov led by eight tenths of a gap from Bilinski who faced all the pressure from Boya. Brando Badoer of PREMA Racing took the fastest lap before Alessandro Giusti of MP Motorsport took the lap.

By lap 8, Tsolov had increased the gap to around two seconds, slowly pulling away from the track. Brad Benavides of AIX Racing and Ivan Domingues of Van Amersfoort Racing were under investigation by the stewards for an incident of leaving the track and gaining advantage at turn 10. A collision between Martinius Stenshorne of Hitech TGR and Câmara was noted by the stewards.

Bilinski set the fastest lap as he reduced the gap between him and Tsolov back to 8 tenths of a second. Del Pino rejoined the grid after the car was fixed, 5 laps behind the rest of the grid.

Gerrard Xie of Hitech TGR, reported a puncture and entered the pits for a tyre change. 

Christian Ho of DAMS Racing had a bit of contact with the wall having faced minimal damage. Lap 14 and Tsolov was now three seconds away from Bilinski. Benavides received a 10 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Whereas the Tramnitz and Léon incident had no further investigation.

Naël managed to take the fastest lap once again in lap 16, Tsolov now four seconds away from the grid. Nicola Lacorte was shown in the pits facing trouble with his steering. Stenshorne and Câmara’s contact faced no further investigation by the stewards. 

Lap 18 and the drivers were on the edge, finding a way to maneuver their way to a higher position. Voisin had a close call with the barriers as the grip level began to drop off. A yellow flag was waved as Léon crashed into the barrier at turn 8 falling from P6 to a retirement.

The Safety Car was deployed on track as Tsolov had to slow down, having created an 11 second gap between the rest of the grid and him. The marshals cleared the track, removing Léon’s damaged car as the drivers passed by weaving to maintain the temperature of the tyres. 

Charlie Wurz of Trident reported a puncture on his tyre and that his car felt “Wrong!”. Wurz was told to box but continued as the green flag was waved. A big lock-up for Wurz as he exited the tunnel, having caused a huge queue behind him - clearly unable to drive with a damaged front wing.

Wurz went straight into the barriers, another safety car ready to be deployed. More incidents followed as Giusti made contact with James Wharton of ART Grand Prix. Badoer had rammed off of Portier, needing to retire from the race as the Safety car was deployed. The collision was caused by Nicola Marinangeli of AIX Racing.  

Credit: Formula 3 via X

Lap 22 and the drivers began weaving once again to maintain their tyre temperatures. Louis Sharp of Rodin Motorsport was able to move up to 10th as Wurz retired from the race. With Wurz out, Câmara moved to P9, earning more points. However this was short lived as Câmara retired from the race as his wheel fell off the car. 

A ten second penalty for Domingues was given as he left the track and gained an advantage, this didn’t affect him much as he wasn’t within the points. Câmara’s wheel came off at turn 19 and hit the front of Joshua Dufek of Hitech TGR, causing minimal damage. 

Naël still held the fastest lap, but was running in P19, making it pretty insignificant for the driver as he wouldn’t be awarded the point. Tsolov extended his gap once again, three seconds away from Bilinski. Marinangeli was given a penalty for causing the collision with Badoer. 

Voisin made contact with the wall, pushing as he tried to take the position from the Spaniard ahead of him but to no avail. A Dufek and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak of Campos Racing incident was noted by the stewards for having left the track and gaining an advantage. 

The last lap was here, Tsolov still leading with a seven second gap. He approached the main straight and crossed the chequered flag taking a record breaking Monaco Feature Race win. Bilinski took his first Feature Race podium in the F3 series while Boya took his first podium of the season. The race ended with five retirements - Câmara, Badoer, Wurz, Benavides, Del Pino, Léon and Lacorte.

Tsolov managed to break the record previously set by Frederik Vesti at the RedBull Ring in 2021. He is the only driver to have five wins in FIA Formula 3, marking his entry into the championship fight. A track where he took his first win, now he has managed to take a record breaking first win - Monaco is truly his track.

Credit: Formula 3 via X

“I think it was a race where I had to be really focused. So you know probably like hundred percent of it, at some point I felt 99% in one corner and I felt like I’ve misjudged the braking by one meter in the last sector and the corner changed quite a bit. So then I sat back and I was like I need to actually focus again. It’s definitely really exciting but to be honest I wasn't really looking at the walls. I was just following the track and then letting the car end up where it has to be with the speed I was carrying so you know, I was coming close to perfection and it was just really enjoyable to do a lot of laps while pushing,” said Tsolov at a press conference attended by DIVEBOMB, highlighting how he went with the flow of the race more than focusing on the narrow track.

“The start of the line wasn’t good at all to be honest. But I even think with a good start, realistically I am not going to be getting past anything like this. Maximising it, maybe in the race I could have managed the tyres a little bit better being a bit more accurate on a few apexes and things like this so for sure I haven’t maximised it. And there’s always things to learn and improve on and that’s why this sport is so good,” said Bilinski. 

“I’d say the position was maximised and it was hard for me to do more. I just needed a mistake from the guys in front and they didn't do it. At that point the position is maximised. For sure throughout the race there are many things that you learn and you understand more about the car, the tyres, where to push, where you were lacking and these things you just learn for the rest of the season,” said Boya, bringing to light the key takeaways one gathers from any race.

That brings an end to the chaos filled race weekend at the legendary Monaco. Formula 3 will next head on to Barcelona next week, the final leg of the European triple header.

Make sure to catch the race weekend live, and if you can’t - head back to DIVEBOMB for all the action you might have missed.

Full Feature Race Classification

P1	Nikola Tsolov	Campos Racing
P2	Roman Bilinski	Rodin Motorsport
P3	Mari Boya	Campos Racing
P4	Callum Voisin	Rodin Motorsport
P5	Tim Tramnitz	MP Motorsport
P6	Laurens Van Hoepen	ART Grand Prix
P7	Tuukka Taponen	ART Grand Prix
P8	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech TGR
P9	Louis Sharp	Rodin Motorsport
P10	Alessandro Giusti	MP Motorsport
P11	James Wharton	ART Grand Prix
P12	Joshua Dufek	Hitech TGR
P13	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	Campos Racing
P14	Noah Strømsted	TRIDENT
P15	Christian Ho	DAMS Racing
P16	Ugo Ugochukwu	PREMA Racing
P17	Matìas Zagazeta	DAMS Racing
P18	Santiago Ramos	Van Amersfoort Racing
P19	Gerrard Xie	Hitech TGR
P20	Ivan Domnigues	Van Amersfoort Racing
P21	Nicola Marinangeli	AIX Racing
P22	Théophile Naël	Van Amersfoort Racing
DNF	Rafael Câmara	TRIDENT
DNF	Bruno Del Pino	MP Motorsport
DNF	Brando Badoer	PREMA Racing
DNF	Charlie Wurz	TRIDENT
DNF	Brad Benavides	AIX Racing
DNF	Noel Léon	PREMA Racing
DNF	Nicola Lacorte	DAMS Racing