Italian Grand Prix: F3 Feature race results

One last dash for the 2023 FIA Formula 3 season. Who will have the final taste of victory?

James Fiorucci 4 min read

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Jonny Edgar wins the Feature race around the Monza Circuit. Zak O’Sullivan and Taylor Barnard round out the final podium celebrations of 2023.

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Trident’s Oliver Goethe starts the final race of the 2023 campaign on pole (Image Credit: @Formula 3 on X)

With the Drivers’ Champion already crowned, all eyes will be on the Teams’ Standings which sees just four points between Italian outfits PREMA Racing and Trident.

Trident’s Gabriel Bortoleto secured the Drivers’ Title on Friday after then-nearest rivals Paul Aron and Pepe Marti failed to take pole position during Qualifying.

Since then, Williams Academy driver Franco Colapinto has moved up to second in the Standings with a brilliant win in the preceding Sprint race. But the battle for second in the Championship remains anybody’s game, with five other competitors vying for “best of the rest” behind Bortoleto.

Following the Sprint race there were several penalties awarded. Most notably, Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Luke Browning was disqualified for a technical infringement, while Leonardo Fornaroli exceeded track limits too many times and received five extra seconds to his race time. Finally, Woohyun Shin broke the pitlane speed limit, and will start the Feature race ten places lower than his Qualifying position.

Oliver Goethe will start the Feature race on pole position, with Caio Collet alongside the German on the front row.

Opening laps

Advantage Trident, as Goethe would start from pole. Bortoleto would start fifth, while PREMA’s top two drivers Aron and Zak O’Sullivan would set off from third and sixth respectively.

Or perhaps not! Drama before the start of the race, as Goethe was unable to line up on the starting grid after the formation lap. The German driver pulled off to the side of the track with a throttle issue and retired from the final race of the season.

Kaylen Frederick subsequently stalled on his grid slot, and was forced to start the race from the pitlane.

The race eventually got underway with an empty first grid position, with Collet maintaining the lead into the first chicane. Aron and Edgar briefly alongside behind, with the latter making his way through into second place. Aron out of position would lose another place, as Bortoleto made his way past the PREMA around the outside to claim third.

Cameras on Colapinto, as he suffered a collision which sent him into the gravel past Variante della Roggia. The second placed driver in the Championship retires on the first lap.

The Safety car came out to bunch the field up once again before peeling back in at the end of lap three of 21. Collet stayed in P1, with Edgar and Aron rounding out the provisional podium. Fornaroli attempted a move on O’Sullivan for fifth place at the first corner, but couldn’t quite make it stick.

Bortoleto piled the pressure on Edgar, sticking close to his gearbox. But a mistake through Parabolica would cause him to lose speed down the main straight. Attempting to defend third position from Aron and O’Sullivan, the Champion would go straight on at the first corner, dropping all the way into ninth.

Meanwhile, Gregoire Saucy went into the gravel at Lesmo 2 with a puncture following contact with Bortoleto, while Edgar took the lead from Collet. Out came the Safety car for the second time.

A second Safety car restart

The Safety car came in on the eighth lap. Edgar with a less than ideal restart, as Collet managed to pull alongside the MP Motorsport driver. Edgar maintained the lead, while Aron was pushed wide by Fornaroli on the restart and dropped all the way down to 11th.

Aron pushed Marti into the gravel in an intense battle for tenth, with the latter recovering albeit down in fourteenth at half distance.

Bortoleto was quickly making his way back up the field, with a move on Nikola Tsolov to claim sixth.

A mistake from Fornaroli dropped him from fourth to ninth, but the cameras focussed on the battle for the lead, as Collet made a simple overtake on Edgar to claim the lead of the race. Barnard through on O’Sullivan for third a little further back as well.

Edgar back in the lead in the same fashion on lap 13. The top five were separated by less than a second.

Sebastian Montoya spun out of the race later in the same lap, which prompted the Safety car to come out for a third instance.

A five second penalty for seventh-placed Tsolov, which with the entire field bunched up would drop him out of the points.

Closing stages

Safety car back in for six remaining racing laps. O’Sullivan was the best starter, moving up to second place. He almost made the move stick for the lead on Edgar, but the latter would keep first position.

Further down the field, Marti suffered a puncture and ended up in the gravel further along the racetrack, taking Ido Cohen out of the race as well in the process. A disappointing end to the season for the Spaniard and yet another Safety car in this incident-filled race.

Fornaroli received a five second penalty for forcing another driver of the track, while Beganovic looked to have a broken front wing.

Roberto Faria suddenly stopped on track near the pitlane under the Safety car, a suspected overheating issue for the Brazilian.

The clock was ticking down for the time limit of the race, but we would have a one-lap shootout to decide the final race of the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Edgar nailed the restart, with the top three remaining as-is through the first corner. But Collet attempted a move on O’Sullivan for second, but it didn’t work and allowed Barnard to snatch third from the Brazilian.

Edgar with a stellar victory to cap off his 2023 campaign, while O’Sullivan takes second to secure the Teams’ trophy for PREMA Racing. Barnard rounds out the podium.

Feature race final classification

Full results can be found here.

2023 Championship Standings

Feature Image Credit: @CMansell_Racing on X

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