Vesti charges to F3 victory at Monza, Prema crowned champions

Frederik Vesti stormed to his second victory of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 season at the opening race at Monza as Prema wrapped up the teams’ championship.

Vesti started ninth on the grid but charged through the order, taking advantage of a late Safety Car period to snatch an unlikely win at the Italian Grand Prix venue.

The Dane was third at the point the Safety Car was deployed when Sebastian Fernandez spun off into the gravel at Ascari but immediately found himself fighting for the lead after pulling off a move on Jake Hughes at the restart.

Second place soon became the race lead with just two laps remaining when Vesti launched a daring late lunge on long-time race leader Theo Pourchaire, who had to settle for second.

Pourchaire lost his pole position after being one of nine drivers who were hit with a drip drop for being adjudged to have driven unnecessarily slowly in qualifying but had soured into the lead from sixth on the grid after just four laps.

The 17-year-old ART Grand Prix looked in complete control until the Safety Car when Vesti capitalised to snatch the lead in the closing stages.

Oscar Piastri completed the podium in third place to reclaim the lead of the drivers’ championship by eight points over Prema teammate Logan Sargeant, who was spun to the back of the field while battling Carlin’s Clement Novalak.

The 1-3 result for Prema secured the Italian outfit a second consecutive FIA F3 teams’ championship title with three races to spare in the 2020 season.

David Beckmann was fourth for Trident with Hughes rounding out the top five, ahead of Lawson’s Hitech Grand Prix.

Lirim Zendeli, Bent Viscaal, Enzo Fittipaldi and Michael Belov made up the rest of the top-10, with the Russian claiming reverse grid pole for Sunday’s second race.