Marciello claims truncated race three

Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello took his second win of the opening round of the Formula 3 European Championship at Monza in a race that disappointingly featured just five racing laps.

The race started under the safety car due to constant rain on the Italian track, and when it went green Marciello’s Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes instantly pulled an advantage over the Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Merc of Pascal Wehrlein.

The duo pulled away from third-placed Alex Lynn’s Prema car at an extraordinary rate, but a spate of accidents resulted in the reappearance of the safety car.

With the rain increasing in intensity, the decision was made with just under nine minutes remaining to red-flag the race, and half-points have been awarded.

“It was very difficult because Pascal was very fast and I had to push a lot,” said Marciello. “It was very easy to make a mistake.”

Lynn’s podium position was never under threat from Prema team-mate Lucas Auer, who was able to keep at bay the Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes of Pipo Derani.

Right behind the Brazilian were UK drivers Harry Tincknell (Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen) and Will Buller (T-Sport Dallara-Nissan), who both made up ground on the first lap of racing.

Prema’s Eddie Cheever was eighth, ahead of Carlin man Jordan King and the EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes of Tom Blomqvist.

Numerous incidents kicked off in the midfield, with Sven Muller hitting Nicholas Latifi at the Roggia chicane and putting the Canadian out, Lucas Wolf crashing, and Mitchell Gilbert and Andre Rudersdorf tangling on the approach to Parabolica. These stranded competitors brought out the safety car before the race was terminated.

Britons Josh Hill and Jann Mardenborough finished 12th and 14th respectively.

Results – 8 laps (red flag):
 
Pos  Driver               Team/Car                           Time/Gap
  1.  Raffaelle Marciello  Prema Dallara-Merc               20m05.546s
  2.  Pascal Wehrlein      Mucke Dallara-Merc                 + 2.182s
  3.  Alex Lynn            Prema Dallara-Merc                 + 8.455s
  4.  Lucas Auer           Prema Dallara-Merc                + 18.823s
  5.  Pipo Derani          Fortec Dallara-Merc               + 21.508s
  6.  Harry Tincknell      Carlin Dallara-VW                 + 23.935s
  7.  Will Buller          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan            + 29.684s
  8.  Eddie Cheever        Prema Dallara-Merc                + 32.987s
  9.  Jordan King          Carlin Dallara-VW                 + 37.723s
 10.  Tom Blomqvist        Eurointernational Dallara-Merc    + 39.326s
 11.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc                + 40.935s
 12.  Josh Hill            Fortec Dallara-Merc               + 42.195s
 13.  Antonio Giovinazzi   Double R Dallara-Merc             + 42.927s
 14.  Jann Mardenborough   Carlin Dallara-VW                 + 47.397s
 15.  Sven Muller          Ma-con Dallara-VW                 + 50.322s
 16.  Felix Serralles      Fortec Dallara-Merc               + 51.624s
 17.  Gary Thompson        Ferraris Dallara-Merc             + 55.293s
 18.  Sean Gelael          Double R Dallara-Merc           + 1m03.648s
 19.  Dmitry Suranovich    Fortec Dallara-Merc             + 1m08.533s
 20.  Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-Nissan          + 1m19.308s
 21.  Michela Cerruti      Ferraris Dallara-Merc           + 1m21.158s
 22.  Tatiana Calderon     Double R Dallara-Merc           + 1m29.124s
 
Retirements:
 
     Mitchell Gilbert     Mucke Dallara-Merc                   7 laps
      Andre Rudersdorf     Ma-con Dallara-VW                    7 laps
      Lucas Wolf           URD Dallara-Merc                     6 laps
      Nicholas Latifi      Carlin Dallara-VW                    6 laps
      Dennis van de Laar   Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW            6 laps
      Sandro Zeller        Zeller Dallara-Merc                  5 laps
      Roy Nissany          Mucke Dallara-Merc                   4 laps
      Mans Grenhagen       Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW               DNS
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/marciello-claims-truncated-race-three

Horace Gould Jean Marc Gounon Emmanuel de Graffenried Lucas di Grassi Cecil Green