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

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."

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: