Monza European F3: Lotus junior Albon withdraws from event

The Anglo-Thai qualified third for the opening race, but pitted after the reconnaissance laps due to engine trouble caused by a gearing issue, and joined the race a lap down.

Now the Signature team that runs Albon's car has elected to pull him out of the rest of the weekend so that repairs can be made at Volkswagen engine tuner Spiess, rather than change the powerplant and take a trio of 10-place grid penalties that would carry over to include the first race of the next round at Spa.

"It was a bit of a mess," said Albon. "We were overrevving the engine and damaged it pretty badly, and had to change the gears while everyone else was doing the formation lap.

"They fixed the issue, but I had to do the race in emergency mode so didn't really have the pace.

"This is the best solution, because an engine change would have meant I started the last two races here from 27th and 29th, so it would have been unrealistic to get points, and I'd have had a 10-place penalty for Spa."

FURTHER PENALTIES PLUS REGALIA OUT

Albon's woes compounded the misery of Signature - team-mate Dorian Boccolacci has this weekend become the first man in F3 to simultaneously serve two 10-place penalties in the same race, the first issued after an engine change last time out in Pau and the second when his motor was switched again after second qualifying at Monza due to being down on power.

Van Amersfoort Racing's Alessio Lorandi has swiftly followed suit: the Italian had a VW engine failure in Wednesday's test, and a 360-degree spin on the grass in Saturday's opening race caused overheating and has meant another change.

Meanwhile, Double R Racing's Matt Solomon has been put to the rear of the grid for races two and three due to a bodywork flexibility infringement in scrutineering after second qualifying, in which he was eighth fastest. The team explained that it was due to a broken floor stay.

Albon is the second driver to withdraw from the weekend: Argentinian Facu Regalia has pulled out of his one-off F3 weekend with EuroInternational after disappointing pace in qualifying.