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."
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 |

Monza European F3: Lotus junior Albon withdraws from event
Monza European F3: Ferrari protege Stroll penalised for huge crash

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