Victor Martins is the Formula 3 champion! – F1sport.cz

The final race of this year’s FIA Formula 3 season in Monza, Italy brought an absolutely bizarre conclusion, which ended prematurely, but due to the subsequent assignment of time penalties for track limits, the final order was unclear for a long time. Frenchman Victor Martins eventually became the new F3 champion, Zane Maloney won the last race of the season and took second place overall.

If after the Formula 1 qualifying on Saturday, due to the high number of penalties for using new engine components, the final composition of the starting grid was not clear for a long time and various conjectures circulated around it, then the conclusion of the last race of the FIA ​​Formula 3 season brought an even greater mystery.

Before the last race, six drivers still had a chance for the title, with Victor Martins in the best position.

The Frenchman started the race from fourth position, at the first corner after the start he finished third ahead of the Czech driver Roman Staňko, who also had a chance for the title.

Zane Maloney, another title contender, took first position at the start ahead of Alexander Smoljar.

After a restart on lap 5, when the safety car was forced to take to the track due to a collision between Rafael Villagómez and David Vidales, Martins took the lead taking advantage of the braking of Smoljar, who slowed down according to Maloney on his return to the trace.

At that moment Staněk was circling in fourth place when, on lap 9, he attacks Smoljar on the outside of the first corner, who is instead run over by Arthur Leclerc on the inside. There was a slight contact between him and the Russian driver, after which Leclerc had to leave the track. Staněk also had to use the breakaway zone in the first chicane and both dropped to seventh and eighth.

On lap nine, Maloney took the lead ahead of Martins. Three laps later, Oliver Bearman pushed the ART driver to third place.

On lap 16 the safety car went out due to an accident involving Kush Maini and Brad Benavides at turn 2 of Lesmo.

The race was finally interrupted with a red flag due to the jamming of the cars and damage to the barrier.

The race direction has decided that the race will not be resumed.

But he wasn’t sure. During the interruption, the stewards assigned penalties for violating the track limits. One of those punished was Martins, who received a five second penalty. Among the others penalized, for example, William Alatalo, who was in third place at the time of the interruption and was aiming for the first podium in F3, or Jonny Edgar.

After a long wait, it was finally announced that Victor Martins is this year’s FIA Formula 3 Champion with 139 points.

The winner of the last race of the season was Maloney, who moved up to second place in the final standings with 134 points. Another two points behind him was third overall Bearman, who finished the season in second place in the race.

Jak Crawford completed the podium in the main race in Monza. Champion Martins dropped to fourth place after the penalty, ahead of fifth Leclerc and sixth Staňko.

The Czech driver of the Trident team has conquered the fifth place in the final classification of the championship.

Alatalo dropped to seventh place in the main race standings after the penalty, ahead of eighth Edgar, ninth Isack Hadjar and tenth Reec Ushijima.

In the team classification, Prema Racing won the title with a 355 point lead over the second Trident (301) and the third ART Grand Prix (208).

The results

–