CreWritten by Sean McKean
Credit - Prema Racing
From lights to flag, Prema’s Gabriele Minì won the feature race at Monaco. Minì becomes the eighth different winner in the first eight races.
As it unfolded
From pole position, Alpine junior Gabriele Minì got away well and kept the lead, but Christian Mansell kept him honest. Though Mansell gave Minì a slight tap in the hairpin, the lead firmly belonged to the Italian.
In usual Formula 3 fashion, however, the safety car would soon be required. Going into Portier, Piotr Wiśnicki locked up and hit the rear of Charlie Wurz – sending the Austrian slightly airborne and into the barriers. This incident put the 2023 FROC champion out of the race, and Wiśnicki soon received a ten-second penalty for it.
The race resumed on lap three. Aside from contact between Tommy Smith and Callum Voisin, things calmed for a lap. However, AIX Racing’s Nikita Bedrin soon had to retire. This was due to an ambitious divebomb on Tim Tramnitz that led to him hitting Nikola Tsolov and getting a puncture.
Compared to Saturday, this race saw a bit more overtaking. The most notable move came from Rodin’s Joseph Loake, who committed to the move in La Rascasse to get into seventh on lap six.
A few laps later, Boya was trying to pressure Loake into a mistake, and he succeeded as Loake went off in the Nouvelle Chicane. Subsequently, the Brit let the Campos driver through and back into seventh on lap 15.
An intervention occurred once more on lap 20. Going into Mirabeau, sprint race winner Nikola Tsolov tried to make a move on Noel León but hit the rear of his car, sending the Mexican around and stacking up Tsolov and Sami Meguetounif in avoidance. Though the originators of the incident continued on, Meguetounif had to retire from the race.
On lap 23, the race went back to green-flag.
Only a few corners after the restart, Laurens van Hoepen was trying to put pressure on Joseph Loake. The Dutchman tried to go side-by-side in Tabac corner, but with little room, he was stuffed into the barrier – putting him out of the race with big damage and sending out the safety car yet again.
The safety car came in for a one-lap dash, and despite the best efforts from Mansell, it wouldn’t stop Gabriele Minì from securing the win in Monaco – his second in a row here. With this result, Minì now takes the lead of the drivers’ championship.
Mansell kept the pressure on the whole time in second followed by Williams junior Luke Browning in third. Arvid Lindblad quietly finished in fourth. Leonardo Fornaroli stays in the championship hunt with a fifth-place finish.
The last Prema, Dino Beganovic, took sixth. Mari Boya ended an eventful race in seventh. Tim Tramnitz moved his way up the field to take eighth. Joseph Loake takes his first feature race points in ninth. Rounding out the top 10 was Oliver Goethe.
Provisional Classification:
Gabriele Minì (Prema Racing)
Christian Mansell (ART Grand Prix)
Luke Browning (Hitech Grand Prix)
Arvid Lindblad (Prema Racing)
Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident)
Dino Beganovic (Prema Racing)
Mari Boya (Campos Racing)
Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport)
Joseph Loake (Rodin Motorsport)
Oliver Goethe (Campos Racing)
Kacper Sztuka (MP Motorsport)
Tommy Smith (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Callum Voisin (Rodin Motorsport)
Santiago Ramos (Trident)
Sebastian Montoya (Campos Racing)
Alex Dunne (MP Motorsport)
Max Esterson (Jenzer Motorsport)
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (AIX Racing)
Sophia Floersch (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Joshua Dufek (AIX Racing)
Cian Shields (Hitech Grand Prix)
James Hedley (Jenzer Motorsport)
Noel León (Van Amersfoort Racing)
Nikita Bedrin (AIX Racing)
Piotr Wiśnicki (Rodin Motorsport)
[FL] Martinius Stenshorne (Hitech Grand Prix)
Nikola Tsolov (ART Grand Prix)
[DNF] Laurens van Hoepen (ART Grand Prix)
[DNF] Sami Meguetounif (Trident)
[DNF] Charlie Wurz (Jenzer Motorsport)