F3 Monaco: Marti dominates sprint for second win of the season

The Campos Racing driver started on reverse-grid pole for Saturday's race as the series made its first visit to the principality since GP3 in 2012.

Despite one safety car, it was a sedate race for F3, with few moves among the top 10.

After the restart, Marti managed to build a convincing gap, having opened up three seconds to Leonardo Fornaroli in the first 11 laps of racing before crossing the line eight seconds ahead of the Trident driver.

Gregoire Saucy finished third for ART Grand Prix to take his third podium of the season, sitting second in the drivers' standings.

With Marti leading off the line ahead of Fornaroli, the only early move at the front came courtesy of Saucy passing Jenzer's Taylor Barnard for third around the outside of Turn 1.

Further back, Hitech driver Luke Browning made it past Caio Collet (MP) and Sunday polesitter Gabriele Mini clinched 11th from Prema rival Dino Beganovic.

The safety car was quickly deployed after MP Motorsport driver Jonny Edgar found the wall at Turn 1, ending his race, with team-mate Mari Boya swerving to avoid him and suffering terminal damage to his rear-left side.

Racing resumed on lap six, with Franco Colapinto also making it past Barnard, this time up the inside of the Fairmont hairpin.

Tommy Smith was involved in a shunt heading into the tunnel in his Van Amersfoort Racing car, with Oliver Goethe bumping him into the wall and receiving a 10-second penalty.

Smith was also involved in a tussle between Piotr Wisnicki and Ido Cohen at the hairpin as the trio battled further down the field, the Israeli driver nudging the Pole as they headed down the hill.

By lap 15, the gap from Marti to Fornaroli was two seconds, and it continued to grow, up to three seconds just two laps later as the Spaniard pulled away and Fornaroli fell into Saucy's clutches.

Further back, Sebastian Montoya (Hitech) looked set to close on Trident driver Gabriel Bortoleto, but the Brazilian was able to hold him behind in the fight for sixth.

Saucy had a small lock-up into the hairpin on lap 21 as he attempted to close further on Fornaroli, but never made it close enough.

Colapinto finished fourth with Barnard and Bortoleto in fifth and sixth. Montoya, Browning, Collet and Prema driver Paul Aron rounded off the top 10.

Cla	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing
2	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident	8.100
3	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	8.800
4	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	9.300
5	Taylor Barnard	Jenzer Motorsport	11.500
6	Gabriel Bortoleto	Trident	13.600
7	Sebastian Montoya	Hitech Pulse-Eight	13.900
8	Luke Browning	Hitech Pulse-Eight	14.500
9	Caio Collet	Van Amersfoort Racing	15.900
10	Paul Aron	Prema Powerteam	17.900
11	Gabriele Minì	Hitech Pulse-Eight	18.400
12	Dino Beganovic	Prema Powerteam	19.900
13	Zak O'Sullivan	Prema Powerteam	20.900
14	Nikola Tsolov	ART Grand Prix	22.200
15	Nikita Bedrin	Jenzer Motorsport	23.200
16	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	24.000
17	Oliver Goethe	Trident	35.800
18	Piotr Wiśnicki	PHM Racing by Charouz	38.400
19	Ido Cohen	Rodin Carlin	40.300
20	Christian Mansell	Campos Racing	40.800
21	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort Racing	42.300
22	Oliver Gray	Rodin Carlin	43.700
23	Sophia Flörsch	PHM Racing by Charouz	45.100
24	Kaylen Frederick	ART Grand Prix	47.300
25	Hugh Barter	Campos Racing	50.000
26	Alex Garcia	Jenzer Motorsport	1'01.300
27	Hunter Yeany	Rodin Carlin
	Roberto Faria	PHM Racing by Charouz
	Mari Boya	MP Motorsport
	Jonny Edgar	MP Motorsport
View full results