Gabriele Mini clinches back-to-back Monaco F3 feature wins

Photo: Prema

Gabriele Mini controlled the Formula 3 feature race at Monaco to claim back-to-back Sunday victories on the streets of the Principality.

The Prema driver became the new championship leader five points ahead of Hitech GP’s Luke Browning, who finished third. ART Grand Prix’s Christian Mansell joined them on the podium in second.

Mini led the way from pole position into turn one despite Mansell’s brilliant getaway alongside him. Behind them, several cars went side by side in the first corners of the race, but few changes of position were completed.

The safety car was out before the end of the first lap. Rodin Motorsport’s Piotr Wisnicki hit the rear right tyre of Jenzer Motorsport’s Charlie Wurz entering Portier and sent him into the barrier. Wisnicki received a 10-second time penalty for the incident.

The track went green again at the end of lap two with Mini restarting early before Anthony Nogues. The first laps were intense with Mansell running within half-a-second of the lead.

AIX Racing’s Nikita Bedrin surprised MP Motorsport’s Kacper Sztuka at the hairpin on lap four of 27 to take 15th place, but clipped the rear of ART GP’s Nikola Tsolov ahead, damaging his front wing. The loose front wing resulted in a puncture and Bedrin had to pit the following lap for repairs.

On lap six, Rodin’s Joseph Loake took the inside of Campos Racing’s Mari Boya at Rascasse and, therefore, seventh place from him. Meanwhile, Mansell dropped back slightly from Mini at the front.

After some difficult laps, Boya was back in pace and putting pressure on Loake. The latter cut the chicane at the exit of the tunnel on lap 14, then gave up the position at the main straight to avoid a time penalty.

Behind them, Laurens van Hoepen drove past Noel Leon at Mirabeau to make the top 10 on lap 15. The ART GP driver had already attempted a move at the same place six laps earlier, but couldn’t consolidate it as his Van Amersfoort Racing rival still had the inside into the hairpin.

While the calm continued up front, the safety car made a second appearance on track on lap 20 because of an incident further down the order. Also Tsolov tried to overtake Leon at Mirabeau, but they collided. Trident’s Sami Meguetounif behind them ran wide and found the barrier at that point as well. Tsolov and Leon were able to get going again though, with the former receiving a 10-second time penalty.

The action resumed two laps later. Loake attempted to pass Boya at the hairpin, but the Spaniard covered the inside well. MP’s Tim Tramnitz benefited from Loake being slow and out of line at the apex and drove around his outside to then consolidate the move at the next corner.

Van Hoepen also tried to overtake Loake at the exit of the tunnel. They went side to side into the braking zone and Van Hoepen on the outside had to cut the chicane to avoid an accident. He gave the place back to the Briton heading into Tabac, but being out of line resulted in him crashing. Then the safety car was out again.

The marshals cleared the track quickly leaving time for one last lap of racing. MP’s Alex Dunne took 17th place from Jenzer’s Max Esterson going around the outside of the hairpin then inside of the next turn. The rest of the order remained unchanged to the chequered flag.

Race results (27 laps)