Zane Maloney won the dramatic Formula 3 Feature Race at Monza, and Victor Martins won the 2022 title.
Victor Martins, Isack Hadjar, Oliver Bearman, Zane Maloney, Roman Stanek, and Arthur Leclerc were all in championship contention ahead of the final race of the season.
Maloney took over the lead at the start, ahead of Alexander Smolyar and Martins. Rafael Villagomez and David Vidales came together at Lesmo 1 and went into the gravel. The Safety Car was deployed.
Carlin’s Enzo Trulli went to the pits to get a new front wing.
Smolyar got ahead of Maloney at the restart but had a lock-up at Variante del Rettifilo. Martins capitalized on the MP Motorsport driver’s mistake and moved up to P1.
Maloney tried to overtake Smolyar for P2 a lap later, but his attempt was unsuccessful. On lap 8 of 22, the Trident driver got to 2nd place. Later in the lap, Maloney also tried to pass Martins but the championship leader stayed in front.
On lap 9, Maloney took the race lead back. At the same time, Leclerc had a collision with Smolyar and had to go off the track at Variante del Rettifilo. Stanek had to do the same.
Smolyar was off the pace and was losing positions. He told the team that he had a broken suspension.
Bearman overtook Martins on lap 12 and was in 2nd place. Meanwhile, Hunter Yeany was given a 5-second time penalty for forcing another driver off the track.
Bearman was putting pressure on Maloney and tried to take the race lead. However, the PREMA Racing driver had to go through the run-off area. That allowed Martins to close the gap to the top 2 drivers.
The Safety Car returned to the track. Kush Maini spun at Lesmo 2 and collected Brad Benavides who had no space to avoid the MP Motorsport car. Both drivers left their cars by themselves. Later on, the race was red-flagged.
Martins received a 5-second time penalty for violating track limits. Moments later, it was confirmed that the race would not be resumed. After that, William Alatalo, who was set to inherit P3 after Martins’ penalty, also received a 5-second time penalty.
It meant that Maloney won his third Feature Race in a row. Bearman was second, while Jak Crawford completed the podium.
Martins was classified 4th which meant that he won the 2022 Formula 3 championship. PREMA Racing won the Teams’ Championship.
The top 10 of the Formula 3 Feature Race in Italy:
Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap |
1 | Zane Maloney | Trident | Winner |
2 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA Racing | +0.5 |
3 | Jak Crawford | PREMA Racing | +5.0 |
4 | Victor Martins | ART GP | +6.0 |
5 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA Racing | +6.0 |
6 | Roman Stanek | Trident | +6.4 |
7 | William Alatalo | Jenzer Motorsport | +9.6 |
8 | Jonny Edgar | Trident | +12.0 |
9 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | +13.5 |
10 | Reece Ushijima | Van Amersfoort Racing | +14.2 |
