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Australia

Huge aerial crash for Menezes mars second Spa race – video

A terrifying airborne crash for Gustavo Menezes brought a premature halt to the second European Formula 3 race of the weekend at Spa, won by Jake Dennis.

Gustavo Menezes, Carlin

Gustavo Menezes, Carlin

Gustavo Menezes, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, Volkswagen
Felix Rosenqvist, Prema Powerteam Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz
Gustavo Menezes, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, Volkswagen
Gustavo Menezes, Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, Volkswagen
Jake Dennis, Prema Powerteam, Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz
Jake Dennis, Prema Powerteam, Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz
Lance Stroll, Prema Powerteam Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz
Lance Stroll, Prema Powerteam, Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz
Santino Ferrucci, Mücke Motorsport, Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz
Sergio Sette Camara, Motopark Dallara Volkswagen
Santino Ferrucci, kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport, Dallara F312
Brandon Maisano, Prema Powerteam Dallara F312 Mercedes-Benz

After a restrained first race which passed largely without incident, driving standards once again took a nosedive in a second race punctuated by three safety car periods, the last of which ended the contest early following Menezes' enormous crash.

The first caution came early on as Kang Ling clumsily hit Julio Moreno in a passing attempt at the Bus Stop chicane, a blameless Tatiana Calderon also getting caught up, with Ferrari protégé Lance Stroll leading the way having passed polesitter Mikkel Jensen.

When the race got back underway, Stroll was under pressure from Jensen and Felix Rosenqvist, up to third from fifth on the grid ahead of Dennis and Brandon Maisano.

The trio arrived at Les Combes together, Stroll defending his position by moving to the inside – only to then cause a three-way melee by recklessly moving across on the attacking Jensen in the braking zone, the Dane consequently hitting Rosenqvist, who was looking to the outside of the pair.

That eliminated all three of the frontrunners on the spot and brought out the safety car once more, leaving Dennis as the race leader ahead of Santino Ferrucci and Maisano.

Sergio Sette Camara was able to find his way past Maisano after the restart, and the Prema driver soon had Menezes on his tail in the battle for fourth.

Coming along the Kemmel Straight, Menezes had an enormous tow from Maisano, sweeping to the right and simply running out of road before hitting the back of the Frenchman’s car and launching into the air into a spectacular half-flip.

Menezes’ car came to rest upside down at Les Combes corner, fortunately not hitting any other cars in the process, the American miraculously emerging from his battered Carlin machine unharmed once the car had been righted – and dropped on the ground – by the marshals.

The race ended behind the safety car that followed, with Dennis taking a third victory of the season from Ferrucci and Camara, both of whom took their first podium finishes of the season.

Maisano survived the impact with Menezes to take fourth ahead of Dorian Boccolacci and race one winner Charles Leclerc, with Maximilian Gunther a distant seventh ahead ahead of Raoul Hyman, erstwhile points leader Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessio Lorandi. 

Race results:

Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
Jake Dennis Prema Powerteam 36m05.200
Santino Ferrucci Mucke Motorsport 0.711
Sergio Sette Camara Motopark 1.056
Brandon Maisano Prema Powerteam 1.853
Dorian Boccolacci Signature 2.393
Charles Leclerc Van Amersfoort Racing 3.397
Maximilian Gunther Mucke Motorsport 3.849
Raoul Hyman West-Tec 4.250
Antonio Giovinazzi Carlin 4.786
10  Alessio Lorandi Van Amersfoort Racing 5.340
11  Callum Ilott Carlin 6.127
12  Ryan Tveter Carlin 7.043
13  George Russell Carlin 8.163
14  Matt Rao Fortec 9.226
15  Fabian Schiller West-Tec 11.086
16  Alexander Albon Signature 11.651
17  Nabil Jeffri Motopark 13.973
18  Sam MacLeod Motopark 14.240
19  Matthew Solomon Double R Racing 16.170
20  Martin Cao Fortec 16.407
21  Pietro Fittipaldi Fortec 17.733
22  Nicolas Pohler Double R Racing 18.582
23  Arjun Maini Van Amersfoort Racing 20.145
24  Michele Beretta Mucke Motorsport 21.649
25  Tatiana Calderon Carlin 23.269
26  Julio Moreno T-Sport 25.487
27  Mahaveer Raghunathan Motopark 27.202
28  Markus Pommer Motopark 29.397
 Ret Gustavo Menezes Carlin
Ret Lance Stroll Prema Powerteam
Ret Mikkel Jensen Mucke Motorsport
Ret Felix Rosenqvist Prema Powerteam
Ret Kang Ling Mucke Motorsport

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