Perez charges to second Monza win

The Telmex-backed T-Sport driver had to start from the middle of the pack after having his two fastest times in qualifying taken away for cutting chicanes, but his relentless pace and superbly judged overtaking brought him to the fore again.

The safety car was called on to allow a first lap pile-up at the Ascari chicane to be cleared, and Perez was still 13th when the race restarted. A combination of the power of his Mugen-Honda on the straights (more than a match for the rival Mercedes unit) and his brilliance on the brakes into the chicanes had him up to sixth in just two laps.

He made light work of Ultimate teammates Esteban Guerrieri and Michael Devaney, and Carlin's Jaime Alguersuari, to climb to third, and then patiently picked off Atte Mustonen for second and Max Chilton for the lead.

Once in front, Perez had to soak up pressure from Guerrieri, as he had in the first race, but he was faultless and never looked like surrendering his lead, and the perfect weekend.

"It shows what you can do if you work hard and never give up," Perez told autosport.com. "We were very disappointed with qualifying but I pushed hard, drove intelligently, and didn't make a single mistake.

"I have to thank T-Sport and the Mugen-Honda that I was able to make the most of it because there's no one thing that can make this difference. I had to be driving my best, the team had to be at their best and make the car perfect, and the engine was very strong as well. It's about our whole package."

Behind Perez, Guerrieri scored the result he deserved the previous day. Then he was knocked out of second place, but now he got the better of Mustonen and Chilton to improve Mygale's best F3 result from third last time out at Croft, to second.

Mustonen went some way to making up for the disappointment of yesterday, when he was the victim of a first corner shunt, by taking the final place on the podium.

Nick Tandy put in his best drive yet in JTR's Mygale, fighting his way through from 12th at the end of the first lap to fifth place, ahead of Chilton and Jaime Alguersuari, who drifted out of the fight at the front in the closing stages.

The race was halted a lap shy of the intended distance when Sebastian Hohenthal suffered his second airborne shunt of the weekend at the first chicane, being launched into a roll after contact with Oliver Turvey. The latter was given a 10-second penalty after the race to drop him out of the points.

Pos Driver                 Team           Car          Time
 1. Sergio Perez           T-Sport        D/H     26:22.072
 2. Esteban Guerrieri      Ultimate       M/M        +0.683
 3. Atte Mustonen          Double R       D/M        +2.412
 4. Max Chilton            Hitech         D/M        +3.003
 5. Nick Tandy             JTR            M/M        +3.063
 6. Jaime Alguersuari      Carlin         D/M        +4.373
 7. Marcus Ericsson        Fortec         D/M        +7.569
 8. Matteo Chinosi         Ombra (I)      D/H        +8.458
 9. John Martin            Double R       D/M        +8.949
10. Michael Devaney        Ultimate       M/M        +9.198
11. Sam Abay               Carlin         D/M        +9.295
12. Jay Bridger            Fluid (N)      D/H       +15.619
13. Oliver Turvey          Carlin         D/M       +16.059
14. Hywel Lloyd            CF (N)         D/H       +22.309
15. Kristjan Einar         Carlin (N)     D/H       +22.722
16. Steven Guerrero        T-Sport (N)    D/H       +50.411
17. Ricardo Teixeira       Ultimate       M/M     +1:17.826

Retirements

    Sebastian Hohenthal    Fortec         D/M       12 laps
    Walter Grubmuller      Hitech         D/M        8 laps
    Brendon Hartley        Carlin         D/M        8 laps
    Andy Meyrick           Carlin (N)     D/H        8 laps
    Stefan Wilson          Fluid (N)      D/H        4 laps
    Federico Leo           Ombra (I)      D/H        0 laps
    Viktor Jensen          Nexa           D/H        0 laps
    Henry Arundel          Double R       D/M        0 laps
    Craig Reiff            Nexa (N)       D/H        0 laps
    Philip Major           Fortec         D/M        0 laps
    Salman Al-Khalifa      T-Sport (N)    D/H        0 laps


Fastest lap Guerrieri, 1:47.926 on lap 12