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GP3 Monza: David Beckmann's Trident Racing switch earns another win

David Beckmann's mid-season switch to Trident Racing continued to pay dividends as the German driver won a second GP3 Series feature race from pole in a row at Monza

His lead was as high as seven and a half seconds as he looked comfortable on a wet Monza circuit with standing water dotted around the track.

Beckmann had the measure of ART Grand Prix's Anthoine Hubert, who extended his championship lead once again.

In a dramatic start, standing water at the first corner caught out Hubert, Juan Manuel Correa, Tatiana Calderon and Simo Laaksonen, all of whom used the escape road.

At the Roggia chicane, Correa spun from fourth and Calderon yielded to ART drivers Callum Ilott and the charging Nikita Mazepin, up into the top five from 11th on the grid after an unbelievable dive into the first chicane where visibility was a only a few metres.

On lap three of the 22, Ilott locked up heading into the Rettifilo chicane, and so did Mazepin just behind. Both cut the corner but Mazepin passed Ilott entering the slip road which appeared dubious.

The stewards showed no signs of investigating the incident during the race.

Ilott remained on Mazepin's tail until lap 12 when Mazepin touched the inside curb at the Roggia chicane and ran wide, touching the gravel on the exit as Ilott moved past in the process.

Mazepin then came under fire from Campos driver Laaksonen, who passed the Force India junior just as a virtual safety car came out on lap 17 and Laaksonen then gave the place back.

But the Finn secured a best ever result in GP3 with fourth when he attacked Mazepin around the outside of the Parabolica on lap 20 and used the momentum to pass at Turn 1.

It was fourth as the luckless Leonardo Pulcini, who qualified third, slowed in the closing stages with a broken gearbox and fell out of the top 10.

That promoted Ilott, who has scored points in every GP3 race this year. He still lost a few points to Hubert but limited the damage by finishing one spot behind.

Mazepin was lucky to see off a charging Giuliano Alesi on the last lap for fifth, while Pulcini's problem stripped Pedro Piquet of the reversed-grid pole, which now goes to Richard Verschoor in his second GP3 Series weekend with MP Motorsport during an impressive debut.

Jake Hughes struggled to make major inroads from 12th on the grid in his ART-run car and took ninth, ahead of Niko Kari who suffered a time penalty.

Feature race result

Pos Driver Team Laps Gap
1 David Beckmann Trident 22 41m55.494s
2 Anthoine Hubert ART Grand Prix 22 6.018s
3 Callum Ilott ART Grand Prix 22 13.789s
4 Simo Laaksonen Campos Racing 22 15.886s
5 Nikita Mazepin ART Grand Prix 22 16.559s
6 Giuliano Alesi Trident 22 17.034s
7 Pedro Piquet Trident 22 23.042s
8 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 22 26.049s
9 Jake Hughes ART Grand Prix 22 30.312s
10 Niko Kari MP Motorsport 22 34.788s
11 Ryan Tveter Trident 22 40.236s
12 Joey Mawson Arden International 22 40.396s
13 Devlin Defrancesco MP Motorsport 22 42.687s
14 Leonardo Pulcini Campos Racing 22 43.391s
15 Tatiana Calderon Jenzer Motorsport 22 44.435s
16 Jannes Fittje Jenzer Motorsport 22 56.185s
17 Juan Manuel Correa Jenzer Motorsport 22 1m16.194s
- Diego Menchaca Campos Racing 16 Retirement
- Julien Falchero Arden International 15 Retirement
- Gabriel Aubry Arden International 1 Retirement

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