Josep Maria Marti was untouchable on track in the Monaco Formula 3 Sprint race, taking his second victory of the season by more than eight seconds. Starting from reverse pole on the grid, the Campos Racing driver left the field behind and pulled away.
Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli overcame the pressure throughout to secure his first F3 podium finish in second, while ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy made the job with a gutsy move around the outside of Turn 1 to complete the podium finish.
F2: Iwasa takes the lead in the Drivers’ Championship with victory in the Monaco Sprint
The story of the race was made up in the early phase, after contact sent MP Motorsport’s Jonny Edgar into the barriers at Sainte Devote, while his teammate Mari Boya also sustained damage. With a perfect restart on Lap 5, Martí steadily built his lap-by-lap lead and continued to speed his way to victory on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Franco Colapinto wasted no time on the restart, making a daring final dive on the brakes into the hairpin turn 6, allowing the Williams junior to make the jump to Taylor Barnard for fourth. However, the Jenzer Motorsport driver achieved his best result so far in fifth, ahead of championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto.
Hitech Pulse-Eight duo Sebastian Montoya and Luke Browning had to settle for seventh and eighth place, ahead of Caio Collet. Despite having Gabriele Mini hot on his heels the entire time, PREMA Racing’s Paul Aron did not give the young Alpine a chance to jump and held on to the final points-paying position.
Mini will be hungry for more when it lines up on pole for Sunday’s feature race. The 27 laps of action begin at 0800 local time.