F3: Johnny Edgar wins the last race of the season at Monza

Johnny Edgar wins the last race of the Formula 3 season at Monza. Along with him, two other British riders, Zach O’Sullivan and Taylor Barnard, climbed onto the podium.

Sunday morning the sun shone in Monza. After the warm-up lap, pole holder Oliver Goethe, instead of taking the starting position, drove to the exit of the pit lane due to problems with the accelerator pedal. The mechanics rolled his car back to the pits in an attempt to rectify the problem, but Oliver was unable to start.

Kaylen Frederik’s car was also rolled into the pit lane, which also had technical problems. The rest of the peloton went into the second warm-up lap.

At the start the pole position remained empty. Chao Collet held onto the lead, while Johnny Edgar overtook Paul Aron for second. In the Roggia chicane Estonian driver Prema was overtaken by Gabriel Bortoleto.

The first lap for Saturday’s sprint winner, Franco Colapinto, was much worse – he was pushed out of the track at the Roggia chicane, after which the Argentine racer hit the wall with his left wheels, breaking the suspension and stopping. The safety car took to the road.

The restart took place in the fourth round of twenty-one. In the top ten, Nikola Tzolov overtook Taylor Barnard and José-Maria Martí dropped from ninth to eleventh after cutting off turn one.

On lap six at the first corner, Johnny Edgar Collet attacked and took the lead in the race. Bortoleto made a mistake in the first corner and rolled back to ninth. Zach O’Sullivan passed Paul Aron and moved into third.

At the Lesmo 2 corner, Grégoire Sosi was thrown into the gravel due to a puncture in the left rear tire, which he suffered in the battle with Bortoleto. The safety car came out on track for the second time.

The race resumed on the ninth lap. At Roggia, Collet overtook Edgar, but at Lesmo 2, Edgar successfully counterattacked and regained the lead. Bortoleto moved up to seventh and Paul Aron dropped back to tenth after being pushed off the track by Leonardo Fornaroli in turn two. Leonardo was later given a ten-second time penalty for this.

On lap 10 at the entrance to Parabolica, Bortoleto overtook Zolov for sixth. On the eleventh lap, Fornaroli lost speed abruptly and rolled back to ninth position, then speed returned to him.

On lap 12, Collette overtook Edgar on the brake at turn one, and Barnard passed O’Sullivan in the battle for third. At the same time, the stewards announced a five-second penalty for Nikita Bedrin for off-track abuse.

On the next lap, the leaders again switched positions – in the first corner Edgar overtook Collet. Gabriel Bortoleto moved up to fifth and overtook Mari Boyu. Sebastian Montoya crashed his car in Roggia after being pushed from behind by Gabriele Mini. The safety car came out on track for the third time.

A restart followed in the sixteenth lap. Zach O’Sullivan successfully attacked Collet and moved into second. Behind the turn three leaders, Ido Cohen and José-Maria Marti went off the track and retired. The safety car was back on the road.

Nikita Bedrin returned to the pits with a damaged car and also retired. After two laps, Roberto Faria retired due to technical problems on the track.

The restart took place one lap before the finish. Johnny Edgar kept the lead and O’Sullivan did not let Collet forward. At Lesmo 1, Taylor passed Barnard Collet on the outside to secure third.

Johnny Edgar led the race to his first win in Formula 3. Zach O’Sullivan’s second-place finish allowed him to finish the season in second place in the drivers’ standings. Taylor Barnard’s third place was the British rider’s third podium finish.

2023 champion Gabriel Bortoleto finished fifth. The Prema team became Formula 3 champion in the team classification.

The Formula 3 season is over. This year the riders have three more test sessions: October 5-6 in Jerez, October 10-11 in Barcelona and October 23-24 in Imola.

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