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Monza European F3: Pascal Wehrlein wins dramatic rain-soaked race two

Pascal Wehrlein claimed victory in a dramatic second Formula 3 European Championship race at Monza, which started under the safety car on a streaming wet track and finished in the same manner due to an enormous accident

Wehrlein was pushing to build a gap on the opening lap under green-flag conditions, but his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes ran wide into the gravel at Lesmo 1, allowing Saturday winner Raffaele Marciello to take the lead in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes.

Marciello lacked the pace of Wehrlein, who claimed fastest lap as he caught the Italian. On the 11th lap, Marciello was baulked at the Lesmos by Spike Goddard, who had recovered after spinning, and Wehrlein was able to make a clean move into the Ascari chicane.

At the beginning of the next lap there was a big shunt at the Rettifilo chicane.

Mans Grenhagen, lying in ninth place, hit the back of Jordan King and took off, landing on the car of Will Buller in an accident that eliminated all three cars with substantial damage. Fortunately, the three drivers emerged relatively unscathed.

Wehrlein then reeled off two further laps under the safety car to take the win from Marciello, who was not particularly bothered by Goddard's actions as he knows the German is contesting only this weekend in F3 before joining the DTM.

"The conditions were very hard," said Wehrlein. "We had never driven here in the rain so it was difficult for the drivers who raced in the Euro Series last year, whereas the guys from the British championship raced here in the wet.

"I was pushing for a gap on the first lap and made a mistake, but I was quick and could follow Raffaele. He was blocked and I put a move on him."

Marciello's Prema team-mate Lucas Auer, who started third, suffered a red-face moment when he lost control behind the safety car on the run into Rettifilo and deranged his right-rear suspension against the barriers.

That promoted Tom Blomqvist to third, a position the EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes driver maintained in the race as he fell ever further behind the leading duo.

Felix Rosenqvist got his first points on the board in the second Mucke car, passing Briton Harry Tincknell's Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen for fourth place on the ninth lap, with the Prema machine of Alex Lynn chasing them home in sixth.

The big crash elevated Felix Serralles to seventh as he led a Fortec Motorsport trio comprising Josh Hill and Pipo Derani, who were lifted into the points by the shunt. Derani was shown a black-and-orange flag for an inoperative rear light, but did not pit and was penalised 10 seconds after the race.

Sven Muller (Ma-con Motorsport Dallara-VW) and Dennis van de Laar (Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-VW) rounded out the points scorers as a consequence.

The other Briton in the race, Carlin's Jann Mardenborough, finished just behind the scorers in 11th place.

Results - 14 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                          Time/Gap
 1.  Pascal Wehrlein      Mucke Dallara-Merc              37m18.470s
 2.  Raffaelle Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc                + 2.569s
 3.  Tom Blomqvist        Eurointernational Dallara-Merc    + 3.018s
 4.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc                + 5.160s
 5.  Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-VW                 + 6.964s
 6.  Alex Lynn            Prema Dallara-Merc                + 7.888s
 7.  Felix Serralles      Fortec Dallara-Merc               + 8.804s
 8.  Josh Hill            Fortec Dallara-Merc               + 9.279s
 9.  Sven Muller          Ma-con Dallara-VW                + 10.584s
10.  Dennis van de Laar   Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW        + 11.095s
11.  Jann Mardenborough   Carlin Dallara-VW                + 12.842s
12.  Antonio Giovinazzi   Double R Dallara-Merc            + 13.273s
13.  Eddie Cheever        Prema Dallara-Merc               + 15.346s
14.  Andre Rudersdorf     Ma-con Dallara-VW                + 15.752s
15.  Nicholas Latifi      Carlin Dallara-VW                + 16.496s
16.  Sean Gelael          Double R Dallara-Merc            + 17.106s
17.  Roy Nissany          Mucke Dallara-Merc               + 17.747s
18.  Pipo Derani*         Fortec Dallara-Merc              + 18.140s
19.  Lucas Wolf           URD Dallara-Merc                 + 18.791s
20.  Gary Thompson        Ferraris Dallara-Merc            + 20.600s
21.  Sandro Zeller        Zeller Dallara-Merc              + 21.510s
22.  Dmitry Suranovich    Fortec Dallara-Merc              + 22.014s
23.  Tatiana Calderon     Double R Dallara-Merc            + 24.581s
24.  Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-Nissan             + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Will Buller          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan             11 laps
     Jordan King          Carlin Dallara-VW                  11 laps
     Mans Grenhagen       Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW          11 laps
     Mitchell Gilbert     Mucke Dallara-Merc                 11 laps
     Michela Cerruti      Ferraris Dallara-Merc               8 laps
     Lucas Auer           Prema Dallara-Merc                  3 laps
* 10-second penalty for inoperative rear light

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