Svendsen-Cook wins at Monza
Rupert Svendsen-Cook won the first reversed grid race of the British Formula 3 season at Monza this morning - repeating a feat he managed on his series debut at Oulton Park last year
The Carlin racer started on the front row of the grid and swept past poleman Riki Christodoulou (Hitech) as they headed down to the Rettifilio chicane at the beginning of the second lap.
Christodoulou gradually fell back to fourth, behind Fortec's Will Buller and yesterday's race winner Felipe Nasr (Carlin), as Svendsen-Cook built a 2.5-second cushion.
Nasr climbed carefully through from sixth on the grid and was the fastest man on the track during the middle portion of the race, but took several laps to find a way by Buller.
He eventually stole second at the first chicane at three quarters distance, before dragging Buller with him as he set off after team-mate Svendsen-Cook.
This pair closed to within 1s of Svendsen-Cook, but the Brit responded with his personal best lap of the race on the penultimate tour and held on to win.
Christodoulou came home four seconds adrift of Buller in a lonely fourth, chased at a distance by Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar.
Jaafar's Colombian team-mate Carlos Huertas started fourth, but got shuffled back to sixth in the early laps before entering into a mighty duel with Fortec's Lucas Foresti - with occasional cameos by T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar.
Huertas eventually got the better of his South American compatriot on the penultimate lap, as Foresti slipped back and came under renewed attack from Idafar and Sino Vision's Hywel Lloyd.
Foresti had been locking his brakes throughout the race and went too deep into turn one trying to defend from Lloyd on the last lap. The Brazilian careered into the back of Idafar and tipped the British-born Bahraini into a spin, which allowed Lloyd to escape with seventh and forced Idafar to crab home last of the classified finishers in 18th.
Kevin Magnussen (Carlin), who rose quickly from 15th to the fringes of the top 10 in the early stages, was thus promoted to eighth, while Pietro Fantin (Hitech) pipped Foresti to ninth on the line.
Results - 12 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin Dallara-VW 21m30.188s 2. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW + 1.045s 3. William Buller Fortec Dallara-Merc + 1.568s 4. Riki Christodoulou Hitech Dallara-VW + 6.636s 5. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 7.713s 6. Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW + 15.692s 7. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 20.050s 8. Kevin Magnussen Carlin Dallara-VW + 20.506s 9 Pietro Fantin Hitech Dallara-VW + 22.013s 10. Lucas Foresti Fortec Dallara-Merc + 22.030s 11 Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 22.205s 12. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Merc + 22.397s 13 Scott Pye Double R Dallara-Merc + 28.940s 14. Yann Cunha T-Sport Dallara-VW + 31.305s 15. Bruno Mendez Hitech Dallara-VW + 31.651s 16 Bart Hylkema T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 32.581s 17. Adderly Fong Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 43.369s 18. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport Dallara-VW + 53.212s Retirements/Not classified: Fahmi Ilyas Fortec Dallara-Merc 9 laps Pipo Derani Double R Dallara-Merc 2 laps
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