Roman Bilinski claimed victory in the Formula 3 Sprint Race at Monza after initial winner Tim Tramnitz received a post-race penalty.
The German was adjudged to have not properly engaged the start setup prodcedure prior to lights out, for which a 10-second penalty was given.
As a result, the Pole inherited the win, with Martinious Stenshorne finishing second and Laurens van Hoepen third.
A vicious battle for the lead
Laurens Van Hoepen lined up on pole for the Sprint Race with Martinius Stenshorne eager beside him.
When the lights went out, Van Hoepen went wheel to wheel with Stenshorne, but it was Tukka Taponen on row two who made a move past the two leaders.
Taponen took the lead, but the bold move left him unable to stop, cutting the chicane and falling back into third.
Stenshorne and Van Hoepen were fighting around the Temple of Speed when a Safety Car was called.
A few rows behind the leaders, Brad Benavides clipped the back of Tasanapol Inthruphuvusak, sending the Thai driver through the grass while Benavides was left with front wing damage.
The American dove into the pit lane to change the damaged piece.
Ivan Domingues suffered damage in the initial stages of the opening laps, making contact with the wall as he avoided the initial chaos. The VAR driver was out of the race; his car stopped on the side of the track.
A clean restart
On Lap 4, the Safety Car left the track, and Stenshorne held firm, building a gap quickly in his initial start.
Behind the McLaren junior, Tramnitz and Laurens Van Hoepen fought, with Tramnitz squeezing past the ART driver.
Roman Bilinski climbed to seventh but was looking at sixth, the Rodin, Nikola Tsolov and Taponen going three wide into the turn. Bilinski was just too far back to make the move stick on Taponen’s ART while Tsolov took a run through the run-off area.
On Lap 7, Bilinski made the move stick, moving into sixth and setting his sights on Alessandro Guisti in fifth. He made quick work of the MP driver and, on Lap 8, the Polish driver made a move around the outside of Matías Zagazeta, moving into fourth.
Stenshorne held his lead, but the gap was just 0.205 seconds coming onto the start-finish straight. The gap was closing further as Tramnitz made a move for the lead.
Behind Bilinski made a move up to third, diving down the inside of Stenshorne, hoping to jump onto the second step of the podium. Bilinksi was just too far back to hold the position, settling into third.
A tight battle at the front
With just a second between the front runners, Bilinski made another dive for second, locking up into the corner but importantly making the apex. Stenshorne ran wide early in the corner.
Initially, Stenshorne rejoined second, but Hitech told the McLaren junior to give Bilinski the position to avoid a penalty.
However, the fighting for second gave Tim Tramnitz a gap of 1.3s, breaking the DRS for the first time in the race.
With just four laps left in the race, the gap to Tramnitz continued to grow. Sitting at 2.3s on Lap 15.
Bilinski and Stenshorne repeated their earlier fight. With the Rodin driver surviving the encounter, he maintained his second-place position.
Charlie Wurz was stopped in the grass after making contact with Noel Leon and Brad Badoer, bringing out a Safety Car in the final stage of the race.
With just one lap remaining in the Sprint Race, the Safety Car was brought in.
Tramnitz managed a strong restart once again, holding onto the lead into the first corners. Bilinski watched his mirrors as Stenshorne closed in behind the Polish driver.
Behind the top 3, Zagazeta, Guisti and Mari Boya all fought for sixth and seventh place.
Into the final corner, Stenshorne made a dive down the inside of Bilinski. The Rodin driver defended fiercely to hold on to second place.
Tramnitz held onto the lead, taking the chequered flag first, followed by Bilinski and Stenshorne.
Further back, Zagazeta and Tsolov made contact, knocking the Bulgarian driver out of the points in the final turns.
However, the stewards intervened, taking Tramnitz’s victory away from him, his penalty dropping him out of the points.
Noel Leon was also a victim of the stewards, his collision with Badoer and Wurz seeing him lose seventh place.
Ugo Ugochukwu and Theophile Nael were promoted to ninth and tenth respectively.
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