Carlos Sainz Jr wins third British F3 race at Monza and takes championship lead

The Red Bull junior driver swept into the lead from pole position and continued to build on his lead, sometimes adding as much as 1.5s per lap in soaking wet conditions with his Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen.

"What can I say?" beamed Sainz. "The team gave me a perfect car and I managed to use it. The race was tough, and at first it was difficult while I pulled a gap. Then I just needed to drive my race - I didn't want to back off in case I lost concentration."

Fortec Motorsport duo Felix Serralles and Alex Lynn completed the podium with their Dallara-Mercedes.

Serralles pushed hard early on, but a problem with his gearshift meant he had to adjust his driving. Once he had done this, he was beginning to match Sainz's lap times again, but it was too late.

Lynn fended off Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar early on before taking his maiden British F3 podium, with Hannes van Asseldonk fifth in his Fortec machine.

In sixth place Harry Tincknell pulled off two superb passing manoeuvres late in the race around the outside into the Roggia chicane - first on his Carlin team-mate Jack Harvey and then on Fortec's Pipo Derani.

Harvey's subdued eighth place means he falls from first to fourth in the championship, with Sainz moving back ahead, followed by Serralles and Derani.

In the National Class, T-Sport's Spike Goddard righted his earlier incident by claiming his fifth win from six races.

There were two retirements: Pietro Fantin's engine stopped due to a wiring problem; while Geoff Uhrhane was eliminated in a clash with his Double R Racing team-mate Fahmi Ilyas, for which the Malaysian was given a drive-through penalty.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time/Gap
 1.  Carlos Sainz Jr      Carlin Dallara-VW         
 2.  Felix Serralles      Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 16.711s
 3.  Alex Lynn            Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 27.424s
 4.  Jazeman Jaafar       Carlin Dallara-VW         + 18.264s
 5.  Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 32.083s
 6.  Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-VW         + 33.891s
 7.  Pipo Derani          Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 41.236s
 8.  Jack Harvey          Carlin Dallara-VW         + 41.749s
 9.  Nick McBride         T-Sport Dallara-Nissan    + 49.826s
10.  Fahmi Ilyas          Double R Dallara-Merc   + 1m30.064s
11.  Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-Mugen*  + 1m44.938s
12.  Duvashen Padayachee  Double R Dallara-Mugen* + 1m52.702s

Retirements:

     Pietro Fantin        Carlin Dallara-VW            7 laps
     Geoff Uhrhane        Double R Dallara-Merc        6 laps

*Denotes National Class runners.