F3 Italy: Tramnitz scores maiden win as title fight rolls on to finale

Title battle goes to the wire as new race winner emerges at Monza

Tim Tramnitz became the 12th different F3 race winner this season, breaking his duck in the Monza sprint race, while the championship fight remains wide open heading into tomorrow's finale.

In the penultimate outing of the season, the MP Motorsport driver was a picture of composure, taking a lights-to-flag victory in a race that saw no changes for the lead, despite the extreme effect of the tow.

Tramnitz’s success was secured with a cool head on the two safety car restarts, where he was able to pull a clear margin over Sebastian Montoya (Campos) on both occasions. However, a post-race penalty for forcing Santiago Ramos (Trident) off the track resulted in a five-second penalty, dropping Montoya from second to 11th.

With a starting procedure infringement for Tramnitz being investigated after the race, there remains an asterisk over the race result.

Championship combatants Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident), Gabriele Mini (Prema) and Luke Browning (Hitech) were among the raft of grid penalties for qualifying infringements, but Tramnitz's position was unaffected as he lined up on the reversed grid pole.

Leading away from the grid, the Red Bull junior put up an on-the-limit defence on Montoya and Dino Beganovic (Prema) on the run to the Rettifilo chicane amid a cloud of smoke caused by locked brakes.

This dramatic-looking start set the tone for what was to come, although the battles all took place in the mirrors of a controlled Tramnitz.

But the action came to a quick halt, as the safety car was deployed at the end of lap two after Van Amersfoort Racing pair Noel Leon and Tommy Smith tangled with Nikita Bedrin (AIX Racing). For causing the incident, Smith received a 10-second penalty.

Racing resumed on lap six with the championship-leading trio still outside of the points, but points leader Fornaroli was a man on a mission. He made up four places on the restart, then thrust himself into the top 10 one lap later.

This journey reached a peak of seventh, but moments before entering a second safety car period on lap 13, he dropped behind Mari Boya (Campos) as his tyres began to cry enough.

This latest disruption was caused by a clumsy incident at the Rettifilo chicane between Max Esterson and Piotr Wisnicki.

Just as Fornaroli had progressed in the initial safety car restart, Browning strode forward on the second occasion, passing the Italian at the first chicane before overcoming Boya for sixth, following Montoya's penalty.

With one race remaining, Fornaroli has a three point lead from Mini, who took two points for finishing ninth, with Browning two further back.

Eventually taking a point following the post-race decisions, Arvid Lindblad (Prema) remains in with an outside shot of the title, but trails by 21 points.

Fornaroli will start the feature race from pole, with Mini third and Browning seeking to fight back from 13th.

F3 Italy Race 1 Results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport	7	17	33'52.339		173.897		10
2	S. Montoya Campos Racing	11	17	+0.779 33'53.118	0.779	173.831		9
3	S. Ramos Trident	6	17	+0.911 33'53.250	0.132	173.819		8
4	A. Dunne MP Motorsport	9	17	+1.375 33'53.714	0.464	173.780		7
5	D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam	1	17	+1.937 33'54.276	0.562	173.732		6
6	S. Meguetounif Trident	5	17	+4.050 33'56.389	2.113	173.551		5
7	L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight	14	17	+4.126 33'56.465	0.076	173.545		4
8	M. Boya Campos Racing	12	17	+4.360 33'56.699	0.234	173.525		3
9	L. Fornaroli Trident	4	17	+4.843 33'57.182	0.483	173.484		2		1
10	G. Minì Prema Powerteam	2	17	+5.108 33'57.447	0.265	173.461		1
11	M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight	15	17	+5.593 33'57.932	0.485	173.420
12	A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam	3	17	+5.927 33'58.266	0.334	173.392
13	L. Van ART Grand Prix	24	17	+6.595 33'58.934	0.668	173.335
14	M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport	19	17	+6.773 33'59.112	0.178	173.320
15	J. Loake Rodin Motorsport	31	17	+6.812 33'59.151	0.039	173.316
16	S. Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing	21	17	+6.852 33'59.191	0.040	173.313
17	N. Strømsted Campos Racing	10	17	+6.995 33'59.334	0.143	173.301
18	C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	17	+7.389 33'59.728	0.394	173.267	1
19	T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing	26	17	+7.500 33'59.839	0.111	173.258
20	K. Sztuka MP Motorsport	8	17	+8.668 34'01.007	1.168	173.159
21	N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix	25	17	+11.030 34'03.369	2.362	172.959
22	C. Mansell ART Grand Prix	23	17	+13.075 34'05.414	2.045	172.786	1
23	T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing	22	17	+18.511 34'10.850	5.436	172.328
24	C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport	17	16	+1 Lap 32'15.674	1 Lap	171.808
25	C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport	29	16	+1 Lap 34'01.197	1'45.523	162.926	1
dnf	J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing	28	13	+4 Laps 25'26.743	3 Laps		1		Retirement
dnf	M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport	18	12	+5 Laps 23'06.654	1 Lap				Accident
dnf	P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport	30	12	+5 Laps 23'06.938	0.284				Accident
dnf	N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing	27	1	+16 Laps 1'51.996	11 Laps				Accident
dnf	N. León Van Amersfoort Racing	20	1	+16 Laps 1'52.120	0.124				Accident
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