Home Featured Vesti wins at Monza as Prema seals FIA F3 teams’ title

Vesti wins at Monza as Prema seals FIA F3 teams’ title

by Bethonie Waring

Frederick Vesti claimed his second victory of the FIA Formula 3 Championship season in the first Monza race, as Prema team-mate Oscar Piastri reclaimed the points lead.

Piastri and the third Prema cae of Logan Sargeant spent much of the race battling for position at the back end of the top 10, but contact with Carlin’s Clement Novalak sent Sargeant into a spin and dropped him to the back of the field.

Piastri continued in what was then seventh, but then moved forward. He was forced to take risks as he battled Campos’s Alex Peroni, knocking tyres as he tried to find a way past.

He managed to climb up to third by the chequered flag and was closing in on the race leaders on the final lap.

At the front of the order, Vesti had made it into the lead after starting ninth on the grid. He enjoyed a relatively clean start before coming up against Hitech’s poleman Liam Lawson in the battle for second. The pair ran side-by-side for several corners, allowing Trident’s David Beckmann to close in.

He was forced to run off-track as he tried to make the move, but eventually passed Lawson to take third.

Before Lawson could try to reclaim the position, the safety car was brought out to clear Sebastian Fernandez’s stricken car after the ART Grand Prix driver span into the gravel.

The safety car brought Vesti onto the tail of HWA’s Jake Hughes in second place and he wasted no time in passing him on the restart.

Theo Pourchaire was next in Vesti’s sights. Having led for most of the race, Pourchaire put up a good defence but Vesti was able to snatch the lead with two laps to go and kept the ART driver at arm’s length in the final laps.

A double podium for Prema was enough to secure the teams’ title with three races remaining.

Beckmann secured fourth, and Hughes dropped to fifth ahead of Lawson, Lirim Zendelli and MP Motorsport”s Bent Viscaal.

After stalling on the grid, HWA’s Enzo Fittipaldi came through to finish ninth as Charouz scored a rare point with Mikhael Belov in 10th place.

 

Race results (22 laps)
Pos Name Team Time
1 Frederik Vesti Prema 38m22.192s
2 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix +0.899s
3 Oscar Piastri Prema +5.470s
4 David Beckmann Trident +6.124s
5 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab +7.419s
6 Liam Lawson Hitech GP +7.984s
7 Lirim Zendeli Trident +8.692s
8 Bent Viscaal MP Motorsport +9.232s
9 Enzo Fittipaldi HWA Racelab +12.192s
10 Mikhael Belov Charouz Racing System +15.441s
11 Roman Stanek Charouz Racing System +15.755s
12 Jack Doohan HWA Racelab +16.862s
13 Dennis Hauger Hitech GP +17.290s
14 Clement Novalak Carlin +18.455s
15 Lukas Dunner MP Motorsport +19.185s
16 Cameron Das Carlin +20.283s
17 Alex Peroni Campos Racing +21.026s
18 Pierre-Louis Chovet Hitech GP +21.922s
19 David Schumacher Carlin +27.277s
20 Alexander Smolyar ART Grand Prix +28.375s
21 Sophia Floersch Campos Racing +28.393s
22 Federico Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport +29.057s
23 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing +29.434s
24 Igor Fraga Charouz Racing System +34.067s
25 Calan Williams Jenzer Motorsport +34.500s
26 Logan Sargeant Prema +38.847s
27 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport +46.678s
Ret Sebastian Fernandez ART Grand Prix
Ret Olli Caldwell Trident
Ret Matteo Nannini Jenzer Motorsport
Fastest lap: Peroni, 1m39.823s

Championship standings
1 Piastri 160   2 Sargeant 152   3 Beckmann 123.5   4 Pourchaire 124   5 Lawson 123   6 Vesti 117.5   7 Zendeli 78   8 Hughes 73.5   9 Verschoor 62   10 Peroni 58