Monza F3: Honda protege Tsunoda takes maiden win

HWA driver Jake Hughes vaulted from third on the grid to the lead at the start, and established a cushion of nearly three seconds on a soaking wet track. 

Tsunoda quickly climbed from sixth to second, edging clear of his rivals just before the halfway point before reeling in Hughes as the track dried.

The Jenzer driver dived past Hughes at Turn 1 on lap 15 of 22 and began to build a gap, as fellow Red Bull-backed driver Liam Lawson challenged Hughes.

Lawson had made an awful start from second on the grid but worked his way back through the order, passing Hughes one lap after Tsunoda had made the same move.

MP Motorsport driver Lawson ran out of time to challenge Tsunoda, who took the chequered flag by 1.3 seconds to deliver Jenzer's first win of the season.

Hughes came under pressure from another MP driver, Richard Verschoor, but just held on for third.

On the last lap Pedro Piquet (Trident) repassed Leonardo Pulcini (Hitech) at Turn 1 for fifth.

Polesitter Fabio Scherer dropped back as the track dried and had to settle for seventh, narrowly holding off championship leader Robert Shwartzman on the last lap. 

Ferrari and SMP Racing-backed Shwartzman couldn't make progress from his starting spot of eighth but nonetheless consolidated his points lead over Prema teammate Jehan Daruvala, who finished out of the points in 13th.

It means Shwartzman heads to his home round in Sochi with a lead of 33 points over Daruvala, with 48 on offer.

A poor run out of Ascari challenging Sauber Junior Team driver Scherer meant Shwartzman almost lost eighth to ART Grand Prix's Renault junior Christian Lundgaard, who missed out by less than a tenth of a second in a drag race to the line.

Championship contender Juri Vips (Hitech) struggled to move forward after the first two laps, in which he climbed from 25th on the grid to 15th, finally ending up 11th. 

Marcus Armstrong ended up 14th, one place behind Prema stablemate Daruvala, recovering after being tagged into a spin by ART driver David Beckmann at Turn 1.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	14	Yuki Tsunoda	Jenzer Motorsport	22
2	4	Liam Lawson	MP Motorsport	22	1.312
3	11	Jake Hughes	HWA AG	22	2.018
4	6	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	22	2.803
5	18	Pedro Piquet	Trident	22	6.861
6	20	Leonardo Pulcini	HitechGP	22	7.930
7	8	Fabio Scherer	Charouz Racing System	22	14.329
8	28	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	22	14.952
9	3	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	22	15.019
10	31	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	22	16.320
11	21	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	22	16.417
12	30	Felipe Drugovich	Carlin	22	19.285
13	27	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	22	22.373
14	26	Marcus Armstrong	Prema Powerteam	22	23.517
15	19	Niko Kari	Trident	22	25.101
16	17	Devlin DeFrancesco	Trident	22	25.759
17	9	Raoul Hyman	Charouz Racing System	22	25.970
18	7	Lirim Zendeli	Charouz Racing System	22	30.267
19	22	Ye Yifei	HitechGP	22	35.425
20	5	Simo Laaksonen	MP Motorsport	22	36.412
21	2	Max Fewtrell	ART Grand Prix	22	37.328
22	12	Keyvan Andres	HWA AG	22	38.842
23	15	Giorgio Carrara	Jenzer Motorsport	22	44.302
24	16	Andreas Estner	Jenzer Motorsport	22	47.238
25	24	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing	22	1'16.932
26	25	Sebastian Fernandez	Campos Racing	22	1'37.975
27	10	Bent Viscaal	HWA AG	21	1 Lap
28	1	David Beckmann	ART Grand Prix	21	1 Lap
29	29	Teppei Natori	Carlin	21	1 Lap
View full results