British Formula 3 rookie, Felix Serralles secured his second win of the season in a wet and treacherous Monza.
Such were the conditions, the race was held under the safety car for the opening two laps, before it was deemed safe enough to race.
When the race did get underway, Serralles built early lead over T-Sport’s Nick McBride, before Jack Harvey assumed 2nd place at Ascari on the fourth lap, although Serralles’ gap was already 4.8 seconds
The Carlin racer took just over one second out of the lead, but no more than that when Harvey hit clean air in the remaining laps.
The luckless McBride was in line for his first podium finish until he succumbed to pressure from Pietro Fantin (Carlin) on lap 7; however the Australian would easily hold onto 4th place over the line.
Carlin’s Jazeman Jaafar ended the day three seconds adrift of McBride in 5th. The Malaysian led a string of cars across the line, with Pipo Derani (Fortec, 6th), Alex Lynn (Fortec, 7th), Carlos Sainz Jr (Carlin, 8th) and Harry Tincknell (Carlin, 9th) all covered by less than five seconds.
Amidst the group, Derani and Lynn fought hard for 6th spot, with the Fortec duo even clashing wheels entering the Rettifilo chicane. Lynn, however, missed the chicane and pulled out an advantage that would be later be disallowed by the stewards.
Such was the lack of visibility; Derani missed the chequered flag, leading to yet another clash on the slow down lap that damaged both Mercedes-powered machines.
Fahmi Ilyas started on the front row, but spun out early on, eventually recovering to finish 10th some 21 seconds ahead of Double R teammate, Geoff Uhrhane.
After a solid opening race, Hannes van Asseldonk endured a non-race when he crashed into the barriers at the Parabolica during the parade lap.
Duvashen Padayachee kept his Double R Mugen Honda on the road to record his first National Class victory. The Australian brought his car to a welcome finish after rival Spike Goddard spun into retirement on the sixth tour.
2012 British F3 Round of Monza (Rd 2, Race 2, 9 laps)
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 21m09.965s
2. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 3.702s
3. Pietro Fantin Carlin Dallara-VW + 10.915s
4. Nick McBride T-Sport Dallara-Nissan + 15.235s
5. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 18.264s
6. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc + 19.823s
7. Alex Lynn Fortec Dallara-Merc + 19.959s
8. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW + 21.313s
9. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW + 22.692s
10. Fahmi Ilyas Double R Dallara-Merc + 26.107s
11. Geoff Uhrhane Double R Dallara-Merc + 47.433s
12. Duvashen Padayachee Double R Dallara-Mugen* + 56.468s
Retirements:
Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen* 5 laps
Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec Dallara-Merc 0 laps
Italics = National Class
