Monza F3: Eriksson holds off charging Norris to win

BMW junior Eriksson had a good launch off the line and quickly established a safe lead over Mick Schumacher, who passed Carlin man Norris off the line for second.

It took Norris five laps to pass Schumacher at the first Lesmo corner, but, by the time the Briton was up back in second, Eriksson had built a lead of over three seconds.

The gap between the duo stagnated for several laps before Norris started to slowly make up ground.

Norris was finally just a second behind when there were two laps left, but he never got close enough to attempt a move on the Motopark driver, allowing Eriksson to score his second win of the season.

Schumacher spent a lonely race in third, the F4 graduate collecting his maiden podium in the series and ending up best of the Prema drivers.

He finished ahead of teammate Maximilian Gunther, who came under pressure from Carlin's Ferdinand Habsburg late in the race.

Habsburg, fifth on the grid, dropped outside of the top 10 when he made a trip through the gravel at Curva Grande on the opening lap.

However, he made a strong recovery, and even made an overtaking attempt on Gunther at the Roggia chicane only to run wide and eventually settle for fifth.

Prema duo Guan Yu Zhou and Callum Ilott took sixth and seventh, followed by Carlin's Jehan Daruvala and Hitech pair Ralf Aron and Nikita Mazepin.

Harrison Newey and Jake Dennis made contact while fighting for fifth during the race, which resulted in both drivers' retirements.

The latter passed the former at the first chicane and the duo touched in the process, with Newey damaging his front wing and Dennis suffering a puncture.

Newey completed a disastrous race for Van Amersfoort Racing, as Pedro Piquet retired in the gravel, Joey Mawson suffered a puncture and David Beckmann had to pit early in the race and finished 15th.

Race results:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Delay
1	Joel Eriksson	Motopark	34'53.980
2	Lando Norris	Carlin	0.735
3	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	9.037
4	Maximilian Gunther	Prema Powerteam	13.533
5	Ferdinand Habsburg	Carlin	14.829
6	Guan Yu Zhou	Prema Powerteam	15.347
7	Callum Ilott	Prema Powerteam	15.930
8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	18.991
9	Ralf Aron	HitechGP	22.615
10	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	23.826
11	Marino Sato	Motopark	27.555
12	Keyvan Soori	Motopark	30.542
13	Jake Hughes	HitechGP	30.703
14	Tadasuke Makino	HitechGP	31.641
15	David Beckmann	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'44.114
16	Joey Mawson	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'50.735
Ret	Harrison Newey	Van Amersfoort Racing
Ret	Jake Dennis	Carlin
Ret	Pedro Piquet	Van Amersfoort Racing