F3 Monaco: Mini claims maiden series win in feature race

The Hitech driver, who finished as runner-up to his Prema rival in last year’s Formula Regional European championship, took a lights-to-flag win for his first triumph in the series.

Having lined up on pole, Mini maintained his lead through the first safety-car restart before building a 1.4-second gap to Beganovic by lap 12 of 27.

The pair broke away from Paul Aron (Prema) and Hitech’s Luke Browning as they fought for third, with a 7s gap between second and third by lap 22.

Though Beganovic began closing the gap to the leader, halving it in the final eight laps, he was unable to get close enough to pass, with the Italian emerging victorious.

Aron sealed third for a Prema Racing 2-3, with 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Browning settling for fourth.

Leonardo Fornaroli stalled on the grid for Trident from 10th, while there was drama at Turn 1 as Taylor Barnard cut the chicane in his Jenzer-run car, receiving a 10s penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

The safety car was deployed after Ido Cohen crashed his Rodin Carlin car into the wall at Turn 12 ahead of Tabac.

Gabriele Mini, Hitech Grand Prix

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Racing resumed on lap six, with Mini quickly establishing a 1s lead over Beganovic before increasing it to 1.4s by lap 12, with 3s from the leader back to Aron.

Further back, Sebastian Montoya (Hitech) tussled with Caio Collet for fifth, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver running ahead and defending hard.

But the pair came together on lap 18, with Montoya suffering a broken front wing and Collet taking a puncture, forcing him to run on at Massenet and ending his race. Montoya received a 10s penalty for the incident and was last of the classified finishers.

Behind Browning in fourth, championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto secured fifth for Trident.

Franco Colapinto finished sixth for MP, with the third Prema-run machine of Zak O’Sullivan in seventh.

Barnard was eighth after his penalty, with Saturday sprint winner Pepe Marti (Campos Racing) and ART’s Gregoire Saucy rounding off the top 10.

F3 is due to return to action next weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Race result - 27 laps:

Cla	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Gabriele Minì	Hitech Pulse-Eight
2	Dino Beganovic	Prema Powerteam	0.400
3	Paul Aron	Prema Powerteam	7.200
4	Luke Browning	Hitech Pulse-Eight	7.500
5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Trident	19.400
6	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	19.900
7	Zak O'Sullivan	Prema Powerteam	20.900
8	Taylor Barnard	Jenzer Motorsport	25.700
9	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	26.100
10	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	27.200
11	Nikola Tsolov	ART Grand Prix	27.700
12	Nikita Bedrin	Jenzer Motorsport	28.500
13	Oliver Goethe	Trident	29.300
14	Jonny Edgar	MP Motorsport	32.100
15	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort Racing	32.800
16	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	36.400
17	Christian Mansell	Campos Racing	39.600
18	Mari Boya	MP Motorsport	40.800
19	Oliver Gray	Rodin Carlin	47.300
20	Hunter Yeany	Rodin Carlin	47.800
21	Alex Garcia	Jenzer Motorsport	48.800
22	Piotr Wiśnicki	PHM Racing by Charouz	49.500
23	Sophia Flörsch	PHM Racing by Charouz	50.100
24	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident	50.500
25	Kaylen Frederick	ART Grand Prix	56.700
26	Hugh Barter	Campos Racing	1'18.300
27	Roberto Faria	PHM Racing by Charouz	1'22.100
28	Sebastian Montoya	Hitech Pulse-Eight
	Caio Collet	Van Amersfoort Racing
	Ido Cohen	Rodin Carlin
View full results