F3 | Minì wins in the Principality and takes the lead in the standings

When he sees Monaco, Gabriele Minì lights up. After last year’s success, the Italian driver repeated the triumph, taking first place in the Feature Race of the 2024 edition thanks to the pole obtained in the previous days.

A significant victory because, even if the championship is still very long, given that there are still six events to go, Minì has flown to the top of the standings. For now, the Italian has made consistency his strong point, although the first race he finished outside of the points also came in Monaco, in the sprint race where he started in the middle of the group due to the reversed grid.

In the race on Saturday it was Tsolov who won, which means that in the first eight races of the season there were eight different winners.

Sprint race: victory for Tsolov with the grid reversed

The first victory of the weekend, that of the Sprint with the reversed grid, went to Tsolov, after surviving two interruptions due to the entry of the Safety Car and an investigation for erratic driving.

The ART driver, who started from first place with the reversed grid, was rarely put under pressure, with teammate Laurens van Hoepen dropping to third place behind Tim Tramnitz due to a less than brilliant start. at the start. Van Hoepen was then unable to recover the position, despite the lack of pace on the part of his German rival, who in fact then finished second with a gap of over four seconds despite the two Safety Cars.

After a typical Monegasque start which saw seven riders – Sophia Floersch, Tommy Smith, Kacper Sztuka, Charlie Wurz, Martinius Stenshoorne, Cian Shields and Piotr Wisnicki – reported for violating track limits at Sainte Devote, as often happens in the preparatory categories with so many cars on the track at the same time, there were few incidents.

On the first lap in the Casino area, Christian Mansell and Arvid Lindblad came into contact in an intersection of trajectories: the Red Bull academy driver ended up spinning and was then hit by tall drivers coming up behind him, such as Joshua Dufek, Alex Dunne and Shields. All five pilots involved in the accident had to retire. After the red flag was shown, it took a long time to resume the session, also because it was difficult to hope for the cars of Dunne and Mansell, who had remained almost together given that the nose of one of the two single-seaters had got stuck in the crash structure of the other.

Tim Tramnitz, MP Motorsport, Nikola Tsolov, ART Grand Prix, Laurens van Hoepen, ART Grand Prix

Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool

After a long wait, the group did not make another standing start, with Tsolov maintaining the lead and immediately gaining a good lead over Tramnitz. With the race and the classification stabilised, given the difficulties in overtaking in Monaco even with smaller cars, the situation remained essentially frozen, at least until the thirteenth lap, when a contact between Floersh and Sztuka caused the entry of another Safety Car.

After successfully completing the restart again, Tsolov came under investigation for not following the race director’s instructions regarding moving on the restart. If he had been found guilty, a five-second penalty would have been triggered, so he was immediately ordered to push and get ahead of Tramnitz, but with four laps to go the stewards cleared him and he was able to maintain the position.

Behind them, Leon finished in fourth position, Loake, Boyta, Beganovic, Browning, Fornaroli and Goethe, who closes the top ten area.

Feature Race: Minì returns to success

When walking through the streets of the Principality, Gabriele Minì lights up. Last year in Monaco the Italian driver achieved his first victory in F3, which he repeated again this season achieving what is his first success during this championship. A significant triumph also because, although the season is still extremely long, this allows him to also fly to the top of the standings.

Starting from the pole achieved in the previous days, the ART driver, despite not having an excellent start, was still able to manage Mansell behind him in turn 1, maintaining the lead of the race until the checkered flag. As in Saturday’s sprint race, the safety car intervened before the end of the first lap, with Piotr Wisnicki receiving a 10-second penalty for walking Charlie Wurz into the barrier at the Portier.

Kacper Sztuka, MP Motorsport, Monaco GP

Photo by: Dutch Photo Agency

At the restart, despite a few episodes, the ranking stabilized and there were few overtakings, at least Rodin Joseph Loake proved to be an exception to the rule, with a bold maneuver on Mari Boya at the Rascasse for seventh place. This result came after a career-high fifth place in the sprint race.

But the situation changed on lap twenty, when Nikola Tsolov, Noel Leon and Sami Meguetounif ended up in the barriers at Mirabeau, although the latter was the only driver to withdraw from the race, while the others managed to continue. At the entrance to the curve, Tsolov attempted an all-too-bold lunge on Leon: however, the two came into contact and the VAR driver ended up spinning, which is why the Alpine Academy standard bearer received a fine of 10 seconds. Meguetounif also ended up against the barriers, but in reality he found contact with the walls in an attempt to avoid the two crashed cars in front of him.

One lap after the final restart, the Safety Car was called into action again after Laurens van Hoepen crashed into the barriers at the Tabaccaio while battling for ninth position with Loake. The race restarted with just one lap to go, but there were no further incidents and the remaining drivers took the checkered flag, with Minì triumphant with a well-managed race from pole.