Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak claimed the victory in the Formula 3 Feature Race in a Campos 1-2 at Monza as the team claimed the championship title.
The Campos drivers kept the racing clean throughout a Safety Car-riddled race, with incidents throughout the 22 laps around the Temple of Speed.
Trident faced an uphill battle climbing from the back of the field to look for points, Camara and Stromsted salvaging an impressive fifth and sixth place.
All-American front row
Brad Benavides made a clean start from pole position to lead into Turn 1. Ugo Ugochukwu remained alongside him, the PREMA driver slotting in behind the AIX driver.
Benavides and Ugochukwu maintained their positions as Inthraphuvasak and Noel Leon battled over third place behind them.
The Thai driver made it past Leon around the early corners, and by Variante Ascari, the PREMA driver was looking in his mirrors with Nikola Tsolov closing in.
Leon received a moment of respite as Charlie Wurz suffered suspension damage during the opening lap chaos, causing the Safety Car to be brought out.
Benavides had an impressive restart, holding the lead from Ugochukwu. However, going into the first chicane, the PREMA driver made a lunge on his American compatriot.
Benavides ran wide and left the track, but he rejoined ahead of Ugochukwu. He gave up the place coming onto the start-finish straight, though he retook the place in Turn 1.
Ugochukwu temporarily lost a place to Inthraphuvasak, who was late on the brakes into the first chicane. However, the American soon regained second on Lap 5.
Another Safety Car was brought out following Fernando Barrichello’s spin into the gravel at Ascari. The AIX driver beached himself after catching some gravel off the racing line.
Benavides nails another restart
Benavides went early on this occasion, keeping Ugochukwu behind him while Inthraphuvasak struggled, losing a place to Tsolov and Leon through the opening corners.
Diving into Ascari, Ugochukwu touched a small patch of gravel on the track, which sent his PREMA spinning into the gravel – an almost identical incident to Barrichello’s.
The spin ended Ugohcukwu’s Italian GP weekend and triggered a third Safety Car on Lap 7.
Benavides kept the Safety Car restart clean once again, with the pressure coming on Tsolov in second, with Leon closing on his gearbox.
On Lap 11, Nikita Johnson spun in the early corners, threatening to bring out a fourth Safety Car. However, the Hitech driver got going, keeping the racing green.
Tsolov was slowly beginning to close in on Benavides, bringing the gap down to 0.2 seconds as the Red Bull junior passed with ease on the start-finish straight.
Benavides wasn’t ready to give up the lead, though the AIX driver making a lunge around the outside of the Roggia chicane, holding steady as he took the apex.
Further down the grid, Mattias Zagazeta took a run through the gravel, the Williams liveried driver missing his front wing end plates as he came to a halt.
Zagazeta managed to get out of the way, however, avoiding another Safety Car.
Ivan Domingues and Laurens Van Hoepen made contact with Domingues spinning after being clipped. Both drivers plummeted to the bottom of the order.
For the Teams’ Championship fight, the race was heating up as both Trident drivers soon made it into the points positions, alongside Campos’ Mari Boya.
An unbelievable climb for Câmara
At the front, Inthraphuvasak made a lunge from third into the lead into the first chicane, while Roman Bilinski joined the fight for the podium positions.
On Lap 17, Camara got into DRS for Roman Bilinski, closing the gap to just 0.5s as they reached the start-finish straight.
Benavides put a wheel on the grass and was forced to take the escape road, settling back into third.
Camara made a dive down the inside of Bilinski, the Polish driver forced to bail out of the fight to avoid contact. But Camara held firm and took fifth place.
The gaps began to grow at the front, 2.3s separating the top four from Camara.
Meanwhile, Intruphuvasak and Tsolov went wheel-to-wheel into Turn 1, but the Campos team-mates kept it clean.
Noah Stromsted made it a Trident 5-6 as Bilinski initially lost a place to the Dane. The two fought throughout the lap, swapping places. Stromsted held onto sixth.
Inthraphuvasak took the chequered flag in the lead, with Tsolov behind, making it a Campos 1-2 as the team ended the campaign beating Trident to the title.
Leon put in a strong race in the leading PREMA to finish on the podium as Benavides dropped from pole to fourth.
Camara and Noah Stromsted recovered from the back to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, but it wasn’t enough to help Trident beat Campos to the crown.
Bilinski crossed the line behind them. Alessandro Guisti took eighth place as Boya made it three Campos cars in the points in the final round of the season.
Tim Tramnitz, Bruno Del Pino and Callum Voisin closed out the points scorers in Monza and with it, the F3 action in 2025.
READ MORE – Roman Bilinski inherits Monza F3 Sprint win after Tim Tramnitz penalised
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