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Megan White

F3 Monaco: Mini claims maiden series win in feature race

The Hitech driver, who finished as runner-up to his Prema rival in last year’s Formula Regional European championship, took a lights-to-flag win for his first triumph in the series.

Having lined up on pole, Mini maintained his lead through the first safety-car restart before building a 1.4-second gap to Beganovic by lap 12 of 27.

The pair broke away from Paul Aron (Prema) and Hitech’s Luke Browning as they fought for third, with a 7s gap between second and third by lap 22.

Though Beganovic began closing the gap to the leader, halving it in the final eight laps, he was unable to get close enough to pass, with the Italian emerging victorious.

Aron sealed third for a Prema Racing 2-3, with 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Browning settling for fourth.

Leonardo Fornaroli stalled on the grid for Trident from 10th, while there was drama at Turn 1 as Taylor Barnard cut the chicane in his Jenzer-run car, receiving a 10s penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

The safety car was deployed after Ido Cohen crashed his Rodin Carlin car into the wall at Turn 12 ahead of Tabac.

Gabriele Mini, Hitech Grand Prix (Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd)

Racing resumed on lap six, with Mini quickly establishing a 1s lead over Beganovic before increasing it to 1.4s by lap 12, with 3s from the leader back to Aron.

Further back, Sebastian Montoya (Hitech) tussled with Caio Collet for fifth, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver running ahead and defending hard.

But the pair came together on lap 18, with Montoya suffering a broken front wing and Collet taking a puncture, forcing him to run on at Massenet and ending his race. Montoya received a 10s penalty for the incident and was last of the classified finishers.

Behind Browning in fourth, championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto secured fifth for Trident.

Franco Colapinto finished sixth for MP, with the third Prema-run machine of Zak O’Sullivan in seventh.

Barnard was eighth after his penalty, with Saturday sprint winner Pepe Marti (Campos Racing) and ART’s Gregoire Saucy rounding off the top 10.

F3 is due to return to action next weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Race result - 27 laps:

Cla Driver Team Gap
1 Gabriele Minì Hitech Pulse-Eight  
2 Dino Beganovic Italy Prema Powerteam 0.400
3 Paul Aron Italy Prema Powerteam 7.200
4 Luke Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight 7.500
5 Gabriel Bortoleto Italy Trident 19.400
6 Argentina Franco Colapinto Netherlands MP Motorsport 19.900
7 United Kingdom Zak O'Sullivan Italy Prema Powerteam 20.900
8 Taylor Barnard Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 25.700
9 Pepe Martí Spain Campos Racing 26.100
10 Switzerland Gregoire Saucy France ART Grand Prix 27.200
11 Nikola Tsolov France ART Grand Prix 27.700
12 Nikita Bedrin Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 28.500
13 Oliver Goethe Italy Trident 29.300
14 United Kingdom Jonny Edgar Netherlands MP Motorsport 32.100
15 Tommy Smith Netherlands Van Amersfoort Racing 32.800
16 Mexico Rafael Villagomez Netherlands Van Amersfoort Racing 36.400
17 Christian Mansell Spain Campos Racing 39.600
18 Mari Boya Netherlands MP Motorsport 40.800
19 Oliver Gray Rodin Carlin 47.300
20 Hunter Yeany Rodin Carlin 47.800
21 Alex Garcia Switzerland Jenzer Motorsport 48.800
22 Piotr Wiśnicki PHM Racing by Charouz 49.500
23 Germany Sophia Flörsch PHM Racing by Charouz 50.100
24 Leonardo Fornaroli Italy Trident 50.500
25 United States Kaylen Frederick France ART Grand Prix 56.700
26 Hugh Barter Spain Campos Racing 1'18.300
27 Roberto Faria PHM Racing by Charouz 1'22.100
28 Colombia Sebastian Montoya Hitech Pulse-Eight  
  Brazil Caio Collet Netherlands Van Amersfoort Racing  
  Israel Ido Cohen Rodin Carlin  
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