Press Releases - F3 Masters: Chaos at Monaco

F3 Masters: Chaos at Monaco

After a dominant display by Marc Vilanova at Pau, we come to Monaco where anything can actually shock the whole MRC community, the grid getting mixed up after some safety car periods, with Steve Villeneuve looking forward to put Pau behind, its a perfect start as he takes pole position by fractions ahead of championship leader Marc Vilanova, Mack Zaggro always does well, hes in the top 3, Bartek Szybki in 4th looking to kickstart his championship campaign and Juca Macieira rounding out the top 5.

As the sprint race got underway, Steve Villeneuve managed to keep the lead for the first 3 laps but Marc Vilanova just got past him at the main staright and we thought he already got the win away as he increased the gap lap by lap until Lap 21 which was where things began to spice up as Bernando Reckziegel became one of many victims on this circuit as he crashed heavily at the Swimming Pool section enough to bring out the safety car, many drivers pitted in but Dexter Morgan and Zach Austin stayed out, but with the field bunching up, their races were done as passing here is extremely diffcult.
Marc Vilanova kept his lead but a good pitstop for Bartek Szybki got him right behind him, jumping Villeneuve and Zaggro but a mistake for the Pole undid all his work but the safety car was out once again for Csabi Szasz crashing in the Tunnel after losing the rear end while chasing Nuvolari.
The race got underway, Steve Villeneuve was hungry to get the race win back, using every millimeter to close up before he used too much at the Swimming Pool and was forced to pit with a puncture. Soon, Vilanova made a mistake and almost crashed at Tabac but saved it and Mack Zaggro got the lead before he too made a mistake going too deep into Ste Devote and was out of the podium places and Bartek Szybki saw himself in the lead which he would not let go and won the race. What a crazy end to the race... Szalonna the 23 year old Hungarian finishing 2nd, what a calm and composed drive by him, Marc Vilanova finished 3rd.

For the feature race where things got even more chaotic, most of the title favourites binned it, Dexter Morgan has really put himself out of contention with a 3rd DNF in 4 races, then contender Alex Reis fell foul for a clash with the Tabac barriers and got the safety car calling. Then our green flag freedom was shortly lived, Tomas Pasek crashed from a potential points finisb and some drivers fell into the pits with the likes of Paolo Nannini who won there 2 seasons ago, feeling like they could take adantvage of the safety car again and they did John Lawley crashed out as well from a decent result, was in P11 and most of the field dived in the pits, we saw an unusual top 3, Paolo Nannini leading, Zach Austin in 2nd from the very back of the field after a DNF in the sprint, Nadia Portocarrero, the young Portugese maiden in 3rd, Juca Macieira, behind had a mechanical failure in the Sprint is looking good to maybe salvage a very very good result that could kickstart his season. But behind Bartek Szybki is a car ahead of championship leader Marc Vilanova just outside the top 5 and Szybki was making moves pushing hard before he pushed too hard and crashed after a snap of oversteer in Massenet, another title contender to fall foul of the street of Monaco and not what he needed at all. The safety car was called out again, and as we went green again, some proper racing was happening, Max Kos and Tom Mater getting mugged off by experienced drivers and falling down the order, after Zach Austin pitted in almost immediately after green, them laps for clean air would be crucial but its a risky strategy, knowing you cant almost overtake at Monaco, Nadia Portocarrero creating a train behind her in 3rd holding off Vilanova and Zaggro who are also favourites to win as Juca Macieira started to chase Paolo Nannini for the lead, what a win that would be for one of them, then Abilio Nario found his way past Portocarrero for provisional lead as Nannini and Macieira both dived into the pits for their 2nd stops. Marc Montane became the next championship contender to crash out and surprisingly, good runs come to an end and it has become his first ever DNF in F3 Masters across the 3 seasons. Nuvolari and Bauer Jr. had seperate incidents ending their races and calling the safety car for the 5th time, I lost count now... Nario and Portocarrero the Portugese duo pitted and Nario rejoined in 3rd behind Macieira and Nannini but had the adantvage on newer tyres, looking good to maybe win, Portocarrero was mugged off in the pits and was out of the picture for the race win. Green flag fell through and Zaggro started his charge as he made a lovely pass down Mirabeau at Vilanova for 5th, and both of them mugged Zach Austin off for 4th and they were starting to get themselves back in the game, Abilio Nario made a mistake at Ste Devote and Zaggro and Vilanova both gained another place. But the lead changed as Macieira was able to pass Nannini finally and saw himself potentially taking one of the greatest F3 Masters wins in history, as pulled away, Nannini was in danger from Zaggro but Zaggro did the same mistake as he did in the Sprint while attempting to pass and hes actually hit Nannini into the wall and out of the race, luckily for Zaggro he was able to continue without damage but Vilanova and Nario got through and the safety car was called out potentially finishing the race but the green flag fell on the final lap and nothing changed giving Macieira one of the wins of his lifetime and a boost to the season he needed, Marc Vilanova knew most of his rivals were out of the picture, drove a calm and composed race to finish 2nd and extend his lead by a mile now, uh oh... Abilio Nario finished 3rd and Mack Zaggro was 4th, Kenny Werdheim like many others made th most of it and rounded out the top 5, Syelster Szalonna finished 6th, Zach austin with his first points of the season behind in 7th, Bartomoloeu Jarbas with a solid result in 8th, Steve Villeneuve recovered to 9th and Holguera with his first points too rounds out the top 10, shoutout to Callaway, Portocarrero for making it to the points and Muller and Volak Jr. for their decent points record so far. Novikov between them in 13th also recovering from a sprint race DNF.

Hopefully we can come back to normality for Zandvoort, sorry if it felt rushed cause I literally got no time on my hands anyway heres the spreadsheet.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jBxrkc3XxXM_Z1ZxfS0QdOP1RAzzb3R1H-3_bVnEQTc/htmlview# and good evening