Colnaghi holds off Eurocup-3 team-mate Rinicella in Italian 1-2 at Monza

Photo: Eurocup-3

MP Motorsport’s Italian stars Mattia Colnaghi and Valerio Rinicella finished one-two in Eurocup-3’s second Monza race.

There was pre-race drama, as a three-place grid penalty for impeding in qualifying meant Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera started sixth while his team-mate Jesse Carrasquedo Jr lined up 15th due to a 10-place grid penalty.

Colnaghi and Rinicella were behind Campos’s Jules Caranta at the front of the grid, but both were past him after the first corner of the race. Caranta reclaimed second from Rinicella at the della Roggia chicane, while Kacper Sztuka and James Egozi went side-by-side behind.

It went wrong for former points leader Sztuka, with the Campos driver plummeting down the order and Palou Motorsport’s Egozi starting lap two in sixth behind MP’s Maciej Gladysz and Campos’s Ernesto Rivera.

Caranta kept second after wheel-to-wheel with Rinicella again at turn one, but Rinicella overtook him at Curva Grande.

Colnaghi now had a 1.6-second lead, and it grew due to lap three drama. Gladysz had a huge lock-up on the run to turn one, and when he saw Rinicella turning in ahead he tried steering right too but bounced over the kerbs and they both went off.

After rejoining and letting the pack behind catch up, Rivera tried passing Caranta but was spun around by Gladysz at della Roggia. Egozi cut the chicane too, emerging in fourth ahead of Andres Cardenas (MP), Enzo Tarnvanichkul (Campos) and Juan Cota (MP). Rivera fell to ninth and Gladysz pitted for a new front wing.

Egozi overtook Caranta on lap four, Caranta came back past at Curva Grande on lap five, thenh Egozi reclaimed third at della Roggia on lap six. Caranta would decend further down the order over the course of the race, eventually finishing 10th, and Tarncanichkul slipstreamed past Egozi on lap 11.

At that point he was seven seconds behind the top two, who were split by 1.5s. But as they pulled away from Tarnvanichkul, they also got closer to each other and in the final few laps Colnaghi was weaving down straights in defence.

On the last lap he dropped a wheel into the dirt at two corners, and Rinicella was just 0.238s behind at the finish.

Rivera kept the points lead by finishing fifth, and Carrasquedo got himself to the front of the group of cars fighting over sixth. Also in that group was Sztuka, who dropped to 25th but was back up to 15th by lap six and was on the rear of the pack ahead with several laps to go.

Race results (18 laps)