Arthur Leclerc, younger brother of Charles Leclerc, dominated Paul Ricciardone this afternoon and claimed his first Formula 3 victory.
Having overtaken the first race with overtaking, Leclerc led the field in the second sprint and then took his first win as a Prema Racing rider thanks to a reverse grid start.
After qualifying on Friday, Leclerc’s hopes of winning appeared to have dashed over the weekend, but he did a great job in the first sprint and jumped from 30th to 12th, meaning a first for race two due to a reverse grid start.
Prima won twice with Dennis Hueger finishing second. Although it looked like Prima had been renting out the entire podium for a while, Olly Caldwell was ultimately unable to hold onto third place, being won by MP Motorsport rider Victor Martins on the penultimate lap after starting from 11th.
Jack Crawford was second after Leclerc but sank at the start.
Leclerc held onto the lead as his teammates battled for second place behind him.
Ayumu Iwasa, who finished fourth and slipped to fourth due to Crawford’s throttling, was unable to hold his position for long, behind Jack Doohan and Martins, and returned to sixth. The latter improved from sixth to six places!
Clement Novalac quickly climbed to sixth, while top race winner Alex Smollier climbed from twelfth to eighth.
Martins later outpaced Doohan for fourth. Prima was still hoping for a 1-2-3 win at the time. in position.
There was also some event behind the collision when Kaylen Frederick and Jonny Edgar collided, followed by Rafael Villagomez and Ido Cohen. The latter also received a 10-second penalty, and eventually finished the race prematurely.
Smaller and Callan Williams also outpaced Iwasa for seventh and eighth in the last two laps, so the high-tech rider slipped back to ninth. Vesti finished 10th, and prevented David Schumacher from scoring.
Monaco had no trouble during the 20-lap race and won by more than 4 seconds over Hueger.
“I’m very happy, it was a great race and it’s really great to be able to win in front of both F1 and my family and friends. It was a really special win, especially since this place is so close to my house,” said winner Leclerc. The launch this morning when I started from 30, but we did, and I’m very happy for the day.”
