Prema accepts European Formula 3 officials' verdict on Dennis

Former Prema driver Dennis, who is only in the Carlin team for the first three rounds, dropped back from the leading quartet in the second half of the race.

Prema's current lead runner Callum Ilott, a race winner in the opening round at Silverstone, could not pass Dennis and eventually dropped to ninth.

Dennis's team-mates Lando Norris, Jehan Daruvala and Ferdinand Habsburg filled the podium.

While Volkswagen engines such as those used by Carlin appear to have an advantage at Monza over the Mercedes powerplants run by Prema, Ilott also had damage to his car.

Early contact with Habsburg put a hole in Ilott's nose, costing him straight-line speed, and the Briton also claimed that further wounds were caused by side-by-side collisions with various rivals - though he steered clear of blaming Dennis.

"I never really had one big problem with Jake - it was more with other cars," said Ilott.

No penalties were issued for any incidents in the lead group and Prema boss Rene Rosin said his team would not dispute the officials' verdicts.

"If the race director [Tamas Zettner] considered it within the regulations, I'm fine with it," Rosin told Autosport.

"Tamas is very good, and I trust him."

Dennis, who initially fought an aggressive battle for second with Carlin team-mate Norris, said: "It seemed pretty fast at the beginning and then for some reason I struggled a lot with the brakes and locking of the tyres.

"That made them overheat and I had zero grip, so it turned into a snowball effect.

"My visibility was non-existent because I had a massive vibration [from flat-spotted tyres]."

But Dennis acknowledged that he had helped his Carlin team-mates to their 1-2-3 finish.

"I did my best to look after the Carlin cars in front," added Dennis, who eventually retired due to the vibration after dropping out of the points following a clash with Prema's Maximilian Gunther.

"I did my job as well as I could - as a team result it was perfect and I feel I did my best to contribute to that."

Meanwhile, Pedro Piquet has been given a six-place grid penalty for the second race after being found at fault for a late-race collision with Keyvan Andres Soori at the Roggia chicane.