MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz took his first FIA Formula 3 victory in Saturday’s sprint race at Monza as the title race is left wide open for tomorrow’s feature.
In a race that guaranteed intrigue with an astonishing 17 penalties dished-out after qualifying yesterday, the Red Bull junior held the lead from start-to-finish, holding off the challenge of Sebastian Montoya, the Campos driver followed home by Santiago Ramos in third.
Tramnitz’s team-mate Alex Dunne finished fourth after a frantic late-race battle with several drivers behind him. Dino Beganovic was fifth, with Sami Meguetounif sixth.
Luke Browning put-up a late charge to take seventh, with Mari Boya eighth. Title-leader Leonardo Fornaroli raced brilliantly but lost-out on a higher place late-on, eventually finishing ninth, with title rival Gabriele Mini 10th.
Both Fornaroli and Mini are still both best-placed to take the title tomorrow, with the Italian duo looking to take the title on home soil in tomorrow’s feature race.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
At the start, Tramnitz covered Beganovic into T1, with Montoya steaming up the outside in an attempt to take both of them, bouncing on the sausage kerb but managing to take second.
Beganovic was not done, harrying Montoya all the way up to the second chicane but to no avail. Racing was frantic with many jostling for position before the lap ended, and with a rhythm appearing to form, chaos ensued at the start of lap two.
Joshua Dufek locked-up his AIX and went onto the escape road of the Rettifilo, and the corner would see further drama immediately as Nikita Bedrin and Noel Leon would find their races at an end there, both victim of Tommy Smith, the Australian tagging Leon and Bedrin spinning as a consequence. The incident would bring out the Safety Car.
Tramnitz, put under investigation for a start infringement, retained his lead with a gap as the race restarted, with Beganovic swarming all over a slow Montoya, but the Colombian holding-on. The investigation warranted no further action.
Beganovic and Montoya’s frantic battle left the Swede in the clutches of Ramos, who then capitalised at the exit of the Roggia chicane and took the Prema man third.
A championship battle was forming in the midfield as Fornaroli and Arvid Lindblad duelled for ninth place, the third Prema initially fending him off, but the Italian would eventually take the Brit on the outside on the entry to Ascari.
Ramos began to look at Montoya, and a failed overtake sent him going over the kerb at T1, leaving him to bail out and let Montoya keep his place.
Fornaroli was now all over the back of Martinius Stenshorne and soon took eighth. Further ahead, Ramos continued to look racey and took Montoya to begin a hunt on Tramnitz. Montoya would soon be back ahead as the racing behind them began to hot-up.
Browning was now intent on taking Lindblad, with Forniroli now up to seventh with Alex Dunne’s sixth place in his grasp. Browning and Lindblad’s battle would eventually see the Hitech taking Lindblad on the outside of the first chicane.
Dunne and Beganovic would tussle for fifth place with Forniroli waiting to pounce behind them. Boya jumped past Fornarioli at the Rettifilo, the focal point for further incident.
Piotr Wisnicki and Max Esterson’s races ended on lap 13, the pair colliding on the exit of the corner, bringing out the Safety Car once again.
The race would restart on the 17th and final lap, and this time Montoya got it right, keeping Tramnitz closer, with Browning taking Fornaroli for eighth, the pair frantically jostling for position with Meguetounif taking Boya for seventh.
Tramnitz held-on to take victory, with Montoya second and Ramos third. Despite Fornaroli’s disappointing final lap, it was a brilliant demonstration of damage limitation and he takes a three-point lead into the final feature race tomorrow, with Mini second on 129, Browning third on 127 and Lindblad fourth with 113.
