Jak Crawford wins a shortened feature FIA F2 race in Monaco after a pile-up on Lap 1, as Nikola Tsolov wins in F3.
F2:
Pole sitter Alexander Dunne had a slow getaway, and Victor Martins was able to get alongside the Rodin Motorsport car into Turn 1. The pair made contact that left both in the wall at Sainte Devote and resulted in several drivers behind getting caught up in the incident, bringing out the Red Flags.
Along with Dunne and Martins, Richard Verschoor, Gabriele Minì, Ritomo Miyata, Josep María Martí, Max Esterson were all involved in the incident and out of the race. With the cars cleared, the starting order was declared as the original grid order, adjusted with the removal of the cars involved in the incident.
Fornaroli led the pack at the rolling restart ahead of the remaining 14 cars, with the race running to time instead of the originally scheduled 42 laps. Joshua Duerksen was looking to pull a pass on Kush Maini for sixth on the first lap of racing, but contact into Rascasse left the AIX Racing driver out of the race. That brought out the Virtual Safety Car as marshals pushed him behind the barriers.
VSC withdrawn, Fornaroli led from Montoya and Lindblad, as the top three escaped up the road from fourth-placed Crawford. Oliver Goethe was the first to make a mandatory stop from seventh place, switching to the Soft tyres with 23 minutes of the race to go. Dino Beganovic, John Bennett and Sami Meguetounif responded one lap later, rejoining behind the MP Motorsport driver.
Fornaroli had Montoya on his rear wing and with DRS on the race leader, but the PREMA Racing driver couldn’t find a route through for P1. After tapping the wall at Sainte Devote earlier on, Beganovic went into the barriers at Casino Square, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car once more. That prevented anyone yet to pit from completing their mandatory stop right away.
It was then upgraded to a full Safety Car, but the timing of the switch meant Crawford was able to dive into the pitlane right away after the top three passed pit entry prior to the deployment. The rest of the drivers yet to pit also joined the DAMS Lucas Oil driver in the pitlane for their stops. Having caught the Safety Car, the top three then made their stops with 10 minutes to go.
Lindblad jumped Montoya with a quicker pitstop from Campos, while Fornaroli emerged ahead of the trio once more, but Crawford had done enough to take the lead. The Red Flag was then thrown once again with the barriers in need of repairing. It meant Crawford took his second win of 2025 ahead of Fornaroli.
Lindblad had crossed the line in third, but the Campos driver was handed a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, promoting Montoya onto the podium. Browning was fourth ahead of Lindblad, who fell to fifth. Roman Stanek followed in P6 ahead of Amaury Cordeel, Rafael Villagómez, Goethe and John Bennett, who completed the points in 10th. With the race running to a shortened length, Column 2 points were awarded (which is half points and until P9).
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race in Monte Carlo, three drivers have received post-race penalties. Firstly, Alexander Dunne has been handed a post-race drive-through penalty. At the original race start, Car 17 of Dunne made contact with Car 14 of Victor Martins at Turn 1.
Following the race, the Stewards heard from both drivers and their team representatives and also analysed available video evidence.They determined that the Rodin Motorsport driver as the one wholly at fault. They also factored in the tight layout of the Monte Carlo circuit, and the availability of space to the inside of Turn 1 to avoid the collision.
As a result, the Stewards imposed a drive-through penalty. With Dunne not able to serve the penalty as a result of not finishing the race, his penalty has been converted into a 10- place grid drop. The Irish driver has also been assigned three penalty points for his role in the incident. He will serve the grid penalty at the next race in which he competes.
Next, John Bennett has been given a five-second time penalty. The Van Amersfoort Racing driver was found to have been below the minimum delta time at two consecutive sectors under Safety Car conditions. After hearing from the driver and team representative and having reviewed GPS track map data and video evidence, the Stewards determined that Car 24 had breached the delta time, contravening Article 40.7 of the F2 Sporting Regulations.
As a result, Bennett has been given a five-second time penalty. With the penalty applied, the British driver remains 11th in the classification. Finally, Sami Meguetounif has been handed a five-second time penalty. The TRIDENT driver was found to have also been below the minimum delta time in two consecutive sectors under Safety Car conditions.
After hearing from the driver and TRIDENT team representative, and analysing GPS track map data and video evidence, the Stewards determined that Car 22 was below the delta time, breaching Article 40.7 of the F2 Sporting Regulations. As a result, they applied the standard five-second time penalty for the infringement. With his penalty applied, Meguetounif remains 12th in the Feature Race classification.
F3:
It was a strong start for Tsolov, who got away well at lights out to keep the lead, but behind him the battle for a place in the top three got off to a fast start. Bilinski immediately covered off Boya, but the Rodin driver was coming under attack from the Spaniard and his teammate Callum Voisin. The Polish driver was able to keep the position, but Voisin then had a look to the inside of Boya at Turn 4, although the Campos #10 was able to shut the door.
The race settled down at the start of Lap 6, with Boya right on the back of Bilinski, just three-tenths separating the pair. Behind them though and having overtaken Noel León at the start to go to fifth, Tim Tramnitz was closing in on the back of Voisin, who was also chasing down Boya for P3. Lap 10 of 27 and Bilinski, having set the fastest lap on the previous tour, was within DRS range of Tsolov, and had built a 2.3s clear of Boya in third.
Tsolov fought back on the next lap though, and by Lap 13, the Campos driver had built his lead back up to two seconds. By Lap 15, Tsolov was over four seconds clear in front, while Voisin had closed back up to within 0.6s of Boya in the battle for the final spot on the podium. Tsolov now 7.5s clear of Bilinski was the only driver in the top 10 lapping in the 1:26s. However, the Bulgarian’s big lead was taken away after the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 19, following León’s collision with the barrier at Portier.
His PREMA Racing’s car was cleared and racing resumed on Lap 20, but there was a problem for TRIDENT’s Charlie Wurz. In P6, the Austrian was running with a broken front wing. Laurens van Hoepen made his way through at Tabac, but on the next lap, Wurz found the barrier Massanet, releasing the drivers behind him.
The Safety Car was soon out on track again with PREMA’s Brando Badoer stopped at Portier after a tangle with Nicola Marinangeli. The AIX Racing driver was given a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision. The action resumed on Lap 24 of 27 and it was more bad news for TRIDENT, as Rafael Câmara lost the rear right wheel on track, forcing him to retire from the race.
Out in front, Tsolov had marched off into the distance once more and was three seconds clear of Bilinski at the start of Lap 26. Onto the final lap, and Voisin was fighting hard to get ahead of Boya, even brushing the barrier at Turn 1. Tsolov though had marched off into the distance and crossed the line to win for the fifth time in Formula 3.
Bilinski finished second, while Boya held off Voisin to take his first podium of the season, with Tramnitz in fifth. ART Grand Prix pairing van Hoepen and Tuukka Taponen finished sixth and seventh respectively, with Hitech TGR’s Martinius Stenshorne in P8. Louis Sharp made it three Rodin cars in the points, as MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti rounded out the top 10.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1926530476547731612
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of Sunday’s FIA Formula 3 Monte Carlo Feature Race, Joshua Dufek and Noah Stromsted have received a penalty. The Hitech TGR driver has been handed a 10-second time penalty after he was found to have left the track and gained an advantage during the race.
The incident occurred at Turn 10 in a battle with Campos Racing driver Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, and following the race, the Stewards reviewed video evidence and heard from both a team representative and the driver, before determining that Car 15 had left the track when defending from car 11, and rejoined in the same position, thereby gaining a lasting advantage over Car 11 at Turn 10.
As a result, the Stewards penalised Dufek with a 10-second time penalty, dropping him from 12th to 17th in the final classification. Additionally, TRIDENT’s Noah Stromsted has also been given a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage in an incident with Brad Benavides.
The Stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data and video evidence and drove into the pit exit area at the inside of Turn 1 without being compelled do so in a battle with Car 28. Stromsted then completed the overtake by going off track and as he retained the position, he gained a lasting advantage. As a result, a 10-second time penalty has been handed to Stromsted, dropping him from P14 to P18 in the final classification.
Here’s how F2 and F3 sprint race panned out in Monaco
[The story is as per press release]
