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Monza European F3: Felix Rosenqvist wins amid chaos and big crashes

A chaotic second race of the Formula 3 European Championship weekend at Monza featured two barrel rolls, three safety cars, a red flag and an investigation into winner Felix Rosenqvist

As he did earlier, Swede Rosenqvist led from start to (truncated) finish, with only his fellow Prema Powerteam runner Jake Dennis able to offer a challenge.

The win enables Rosenqvist to take an enormous chunk out of Antonio Giovinazzi's championship lead and leapfrog Charles Leclerc for second in the points, as both Giovinazzi and Leclerc failed to finish.

Rosenqvist got away in first from fellow front-row man Leclerc and Giovinazzi, but on the long drag to the first corner Giovinazzi was swallowed up by Dennis and Mikkel Jensen, who funnelled into the Rettifilo chicane in combat.

Leclerc and Dennis made contact, deranging the Monegasque's suspension and leading him to park on the grass on the exit of the chicane, bringing out the safety car.

The race hadn't really got going again when Giovinazzi and Lance Stroll's battle for fifth ended with a horrendous crash entering the Curva Grande (pictured below).

Stroll was very slightly in front, with Giovinazzi sandwiched between his rival and the grass, when the two made contact.

The Canadian Ferrari protege was launched across the front of Giovinazzi, who had nowhere to go, into a sickening barrel roll. Stroll emerged from the car and was fitted with a neck brace.

That meant another safety car, and this time the field got into their third lap of racing when Dorian Boccolacci, who had climbed through the chaos from 32nd on the grid into the points, made contact with Maximilian Gunther at the Rettifilo, the German spinning to a halt on the exit of the chicane.

Just in his wake, Michele Beretta was the second barrel-roller of the race, and the two stricken Mucke cars prompted another race neutralisation.

On the third lap of the last restart, Matt Rao clashed with Alessio Lorandi into the Rettifilo, and the stranded Fortec car of Rao meant the race was stopped, with just over two minutes left to run.

Rosenqvist therefore won from Dennis, with Jensen pipping Mucke team-mate Santino Ferrucci to third.

It is understood that the investigation into Rosenqvist surrounds the third restart, where he got into a slide at Parabolica and in trying to control it went wide over the track limit.

"Jake was putting me under 100 per cent pressure and I knew if I made a mistake I would be there for the taking," said Rosenqvist. "It's really cool for team-mates and friends to race so well."

NEWS UPDATE: Stroll penalised, results adjusted

Behind the leading quartet, a ferocious scrap for fifth ended with Brandon Maisano leapfrogging George Russell as Gustavo Menezes ran off the circuit at the Lesmos.

That promoted Markus Pommer to seventh, with Pietro Fittipaldi, Raoul Hyman and Sam MacLeod completing the points scorers.

RESULTS - 12 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Felix Rosenqvist Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 30m07.694s
2 Jake Dennis Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 0.537s
3 Mikkel Jensen KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1.039s
4 Santino Ferrucci KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1.377s
5 Gustavo Menezes Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 2.267s
6 George Russell Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 2.513s
7 Brandon Maisano Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 2.840s
8 Markus Pommer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 3.477s
9 Pietro Fittipaldi Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 4.686s
10 Raoul Hyman Team West-Tec F3 Dallara/Mercedes 5.661s
11 Sergio Sette Camara Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 6.144s
12 Sam MacLeod Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 6.373s
13 Alessio Lorandi Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 7.103s
14 Callum Ilott Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 7.356s
15 Matt Rao Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 7.988s
16 Artur Janosz EuroInternational Dallara/Mercedes 8.142s
17 Martin Cao Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 8.682s
18 Nicolas Pohler Double R Racing Dallara/Mercedes 8.942s
19 Matt Solomon Double R Racing Dallara/Mercedes 10.665s
20 Arjun Maini Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 10.732s
21 Nabil Jeffri Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 11.267s
22 Tatiana Calderon Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 11.441s
23 Julio Moreno ThreeBond with T-Sport Dallara/NBE 12.282s
24 Mahaveer Raghunathan Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 14.519s
25 Fabian Schiller Team West-Tec F3 Dallara/Mercedes 14.733s
26 Kang Ling KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 15.422s
27 Ryan Tveter Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 19.239s
28 Dorian Boccolacci Signature Dallara/Volkswagen 1m02.026s
- Maximilian Guenther KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes Retirement
- Michele Beretta KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes Retirement
- Antonio Giovinazzi Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen Retirement
- Lance Stroll Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes Retirement
- Alexander Albon Signature Dallara/Volkswagen Withdrawn
- Charles Leclerc Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen Retirement
- Facu Regalia EuroInternational Dallara/Mercedes Withdrawn


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