Nicola Lacorte took a hard-fought home F3 victory in the Italian Grand Prix Feature Race, leading the field ahead of Tuukka Taponen and Taito Kato.
Freddie Slater started the race on pole, with his championship rival down in 23rd. Alongside him, Kanato Le was starting in second.
As the field made their way around the circuit on their formation lap, Gerrard Xie came into the pit lane. His Feature Race was coming to an early end.
Strong start from Slater
Slater led the field as the lights went out, covering off from Le and maintaining his advantage out front.
Further down the order, Hiyu Yamakoshi lost seven places in the opening laps, with championship rival Ugo Ugochukwu suffering a similar fate as he dropped to 29th.
On Lap 3, the DRS was activated, with Le bringing the gap down to just 0.4 seconds to Slater.
There was contact elsewhere in the field, with Fionn McLaughlin making contact with a DAMS driver; the Red Bull-supported McLaughlin broke his suspension, found himself in the gravel, and was out of the race.
The incident brought out a brief Safety Car, bringing the field back together. The Safety Car came into the pits on Lap 4, and Slater led the pack back to green.
The top three held their positions in the restart, with Taito Kato in fifth, closing on Lacorte. The DAMS driver was slow in the restart, which left the door open for Kato, who made it past Lacorte for fourth place.
As the pack remained tight, Le was closing quickly on Slater, with the gap dropping between the two. Le drove down the inside of Turn 1 and locked up into the corner. However, he managed to make the corner and take the lead of the race.
Kato looked down the inside of the TRIDENT driver, catching him out into Ascari, and moving into second behind his teammate.
Woes for Slater
It wasn’t over for Slater, as Lacorte also looked to join the fight for the podium, the DAMS driver taking the field three-wide and claiming third place on the road.
The championship leader dropped to fourth, taking a cautious approach. With Ugochukwu dropped down to 22nd, far out of the points, Slater knew he needed to maximise points without taking unnecessary risks.
Tuukka Taponen took advantage of the TRIDENT’s caution, making it past Slater and pushing the driver into fifth.
The second MP driver, Alessandro Guisti, was also looking to make up places on the TRIDENT driver, but Slater held strong in his defence and maintained the position.
The ART Grand Prix duo out front were fighting side by side for the lead, with Kato holding strong in his defence. However, the problem wasn’t their teammates but Lacorte, who lunged around the outside of both drivers and moved into the lead.
Taponen joined the fray on Lap 11, heading three-wide into the first corner, making up two positions and slotting into second.
On lap 12, the day took a turn for the worse for Slater, the TRIDENT underneath him struggling as he plummeted through the order and out of the points into 15th. Later in the lap, Slater told his engineers over the radio that a retirement was imminent.
The championship leader found himself in front of Ugochukwu, both out of the points.
The day went from bad to worse for Slater, whose right-rear tyre came off his TRIDENT in the closing stages of the lap. As a Safety Car was brought out in reaction, Ugochukwu sat in 13th with a chance of making his way into the pits.
Ernesto Rivera spun out of the race just before Slater stopped on the road, ending the Campos drivers’ weekend.
Lacorte led the restart
Lacorte and Taponen had a strong restart, with both holding their positions and building an early gap to third. Ugochukwu made up two positions in the first lap back racing, just one place away from scoring points.
Yamakoshi and Le were fighting side by side into the first corners on Lap 19, the duo fighting for fourth place.
Ugochukwu went through the middle of Mattia Colnaghi and Enzo Deligny, braking late and cutting the corner, missing out on the two-place drop back into 11th.
However, the Championship runner-up gained another place as Colnaghi received a ten-second penalty, which would put him cleanly out of the points.
Guisti came into the pits to retire his MP Motorsport car, which pushed Ugochukwu forward another position.
Yevan David was having a strong run, with the AIX driver clinging on to fifth place approaching the final corners of the race. But out front, Lacorte was unstoppable, taking the chequered flag to claim a home victory in front of the Tifosi.
Ferrari Driver Academy driver Taponen took the flag second, making it a strong showing for the home crowds. Kato took another amazing result after his Sprint Race win, making him the biggest points scorer from the weekend.
David claimed fourth, and Le rounded out the top five. Yamakoshi climbed back through the field to end the race in sixth, with Noah Stormsted close behind.
Ugochukwu recovered his drive to take 2 points in eighth place, with Deligny and James Wharton closing the points.
READ MORE: Taito Kato grabs superb maiden victory at the F3 Sprint Race at the Italian GP
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