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Alexander Smolyar had taken pole, Maloney alongside him on the front row and Stanek and Martins on the second. Leclerc started fifth, while a crash during qualifying had put Hadjar well back in 16th.
Maloney snatched the lead on the first lap, relegating Smolyar to second with Martins behind him. Meanwhile Bearman and Leclerc went two-wide, nearly colliding. Eventually Leclerc relented, tucking in behind Bearman after the Roggia chicane.
David Vidales, enduring a miserable final weekend of the year, made lap one contact with Rafael Villagomez, both of their races ending in the gravel on the entry to the first Lesmo, prompting a Safety Car to be immediately called.
The race restarted on lap four, Maloney taking a very early restart and almost managing to break the tow to Smolyar. However, Smolyar out-braked Maloney into turn one, barely holding onto it through the first chicane and allowing Martins through past first Maloney and then into the lead.
On lap seven, Martins was shown a black-and-white flag as a final warning for weaving on the straight.
Maloney managed to take the lead via a DRS pass just befor a turn one cluster that narrowly avoided seeing any cars retire on lap nine. Stanek and Leclerc ended up having to weave around the runoff after squeezing Smolyar, who began dropping down the order with what he reported as broken suspension. Bearman moved up to third and Martins made the wise choice to avoid taking damage, losing the race lead but keeping the championship advantage.
Martins did not resist a move from Bearman too hard, on lap 12. Although holding on to third meant he was safe from Bearman, he had to finish fourth in order to win the title if Bearman moved into the win.
Bearman attempted a pass for the lead on lap 16 but Maloney defended, with Bearman being forced to take the shortcut through the chicane and stay behind. Shortly after, a Safety Car was called after Kush Maini and Brad Benavides crashed out of the second Lesmo, both cars ending up on the grass and in the wall on the inside.
There was a red flag called with five laps to go, in order to clear Maini and Benavides’ cars. During the red flag, Martins was issued a five-second time penalty for four track limits violations, putting his championship seemingly under threat for the final four laps.
However, shortly afterwards, the race director announced that the race would not be resumed. Confusion reigned in the pit lane as neither Martins, his team or the other drivers were aware how the championship would be decided.
Eventually, Jonny Edgar and William Alatalo also received five-second time penalties for track limit violations. Alatalo had been initially promoted to third by Martins’ penalty, his own penalty subsequently putting Jak Crawford on the podium and Martins back to fourth.
Maloney won the race, Bearman second, Crawford third and Martins fourth. Consequently, Martins takes the title with a lead of five points over Maloney, seven from Bearman.
Maloney takes second in the 2022 championship, Bearman third, Hadjar settling for fourth after collecting two points for ninth place.
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Formula 3 Italy feature race results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Zane Maloney | Trident |
| 2 | 6 | Oliver Bearman | Prema |
| 3 | 5 | Jak Crawford | Prema |
| 4 | 7 | Victor Martins | ART |
| 5 | 4 | Arthur Leclerc | Prema |
| 6 | 2 | Roman Stanek | Trident |
| 7 | 25 | William Alatalo | Jenzer |
| 8 | 1 | Jonny Edgar | Trident |
| 9 | 18 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech |
| 10 | 31 | Reece Ushijima | HWA |
| 11 | 26 | Zak O’Sullivan | Carlin |
| 12 | 23 | Ido Cohen | Jenzer |
| 13 | 27 | Brad Benavides | Carlin |
| 14 | 29 | Franco Colapinto | HWA |
| 15 | 12 | Kush Maini | MP |
| 16 | 16 | Alexander Smolyar | MP |
| 17 | 21 | Hunter Yeany | Campos |
| 18 | 24 | Federico Malvestiti | Jenzer |
| 19 | 14 | Laszlo Toth | Charouz |
| 20 | 10 | Caio Collet | MP |
| 21 | 19 | Nazim Azman | Hitech |
| 22 | 28 | Enzo Trulli | Carlin |
| 23 | 15 | Alessandro Famularo | Charouz |
| 24 | 9 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART |
| 25 | 17 | Kaylen Frederick | Hitech |
| 26 | 22 | Pepe Marti | Campos |
| 27 | 11 | Alexander Smolyar | MP |
| 28 | 8 | Gregoire Saucy | ART |
| 29 | 30 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA |
| 30 | 20 | David Vidales | Campos |
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Formula 3
- Edgar claims first F3 win in finale as Prema seal teams’ title
- How a WhatsApp message from Alonso put Bortoleto on course for the F3 title
- Colapinto beats new champion Bortoleto to Monza sprint race win
- Bortoleto clinches F3 title as rivals fail to win bonus points for pole
- Formula 2 drops Zandvoort and adds Qatar on 28-race calendar for 2024
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
11th September 2022, 9:55
Aside from all the controversy, first non-Prema driver to win FIA F3.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
11th September 2022, 11:27
@wsrgo how is that relevant when its a level playing field in a fixed spec series with inexperienced drivers and teams? The only difference is who can throw the most money at a team to have the best personnel and be able to spend 1000s hours in simulator (similar to lance stroll) to get an unfair advantage over the course of a season.
Zane Maloney coming from Barbados with zero motorsports history finishing runner up in the championship after wining 3 feature races in a row is far more impressive!
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
12th September 2022, 9:11
@ccpbioweapon It’s a standout feat in that 3 years ago the Premas finished 1-2-3 in F3 with Shwartzman, Armstrong and Daruvala, none of them tremendously great talents.
Jere (@jerejj)
11th September 2022, 11:26
2021 Abu Dhabi GP
Dex
11th September 2022, 11:42
Kind of opposite.
Chaitanya
11th September 2022, 11:43
Too many farcial stewarding throughout the race.
arden.mw
11th September 2022, 13:18
“It’s called a motor race”
Red Andy (@red-andy)
11th September 2022, 13:46
I haven’t seen the race yet, but what is controversial about this exactly? In many programmes a red-flagged support race would not usually resume, especially with so little of the race to run, as it risks disrupting the timings for the rest of the event. And unless one or more of the time penalties was not deserved (i.e. the track limits actually weren’t violated) then their application shouldn’t be controversial either.
Ciaran (@ciaran)
11th September 2022, 16:54
@red-andy In hindsight I would say the decisions to not resume the race (to avoid pushing out F2), and the penalties were all understandable. However the timing of them, and the delays it took to implement the finishing order, perilously close to a complete disaster. For almost half an hour we were facing the prospect of a championship battle being decided by a combination of stewards’ decisions, in particular whether a restart would completely ruin Martins’ title just by a single 5-sec penalty. I think the conclusion is ok, but the stewards nearly backed the entire series into a PR disaster.
Miane
11th September 2022, 16:27
Bearman fans argue that he could have won the race, and that would had gave him the title.