Gabriele Mini wins F3 feature race once again on the streets of Monte Carlo

Alpine Academy and Prema racer Gabriele Mini won a action-packed Formula 3 feature race around the streets of Monte Carlo, Monaco on Grand Prix Sunday.

Mini won ahead of ART's Christian Mansell and Luke Browning, who completed the podium, in a crazy race which saw three safety cars.

The Italian driver has taken the championship lead with victory in Monaco for the second year in a row in FIA Formula 3.

Mini's fellow countryman Leonardo Fornaroli led the championship coming into the feature race. 

How the Formula 3 Monaco Feature Race unfolded

Formula 3 had already produced a fantastic amount of action with a crazy Saturday sprint race, as the teams and drivers were preparing for the 27 lap feature race.


Nikola Tsolov would take a historic win in the sprint, ahead of Tim Tramnitz and Laurens Van Hopen who joined the Bulgarian on the podium. Tsolov had become the first Bulgarian to get a podium in Formula 3.

Gabriele Mini, fellow Alpine Academy driver, would take pole position for the feature race, like he did in 2023, across a grouped qualifying session. He would have Christian Mansell joining him on the front row with Luke Browning third on the grid.
30 cars on the grid and the lights went out Mini would get away from pole position and cover off the challenge from Christtian Mansell as they all got around Saint-Devote unscathed. They were all trying to avoid each other and prevent a multiple-car collision like yesterday.

However, green flag racing would not be for much longer as the safety car would be introduced. Piotr Wisnicki and Charlie Wurz made contact at turn eight, which sent the Jenzer car into the wall.

A short delay for while the car was moved and at the start of lap 3, racing would get back underway. As the race got back going again, Mini managed to fend off Mansell at the restart to keep the race lead..The two would be pretty close to one another as on the following lap Mansell would have DRS on leader Mini.

After diving to the inside of turn 6 on MP Motorsport's Kacper Sztuka and making small contact with sprint race winner Nikola Tsolov, Nikita Bedrin was forced to pit with a puncture continuing a dreadful weekend for the Italian AIX driver.

Lap 6 and Joseph Loake, with his best every qualifying and first ever points in Formula 3 across the weekend, would have started to take a liking to the narrow streets of Monte Carlo. He showed no fear and made a slick overtake into Rascasse on Mari Boya in the Campos. for seventh. 

Onto lap 10 and Mansell began to put some pressure on Mini, the gap had come within a second.

Loake was showing great pace but after flat-spotting his tyres at the Nouvelle Chicane, this put him on the back foot and under pressure on lap 13. By lap 15, he had been passed by Boya and was back down to eighth place.

10-second penalty would be awarded to Martinius Stenshorne for leaving track and gaining an advantage. The McLaren junior driver was not having an enjoyable weekend.

Laurens Van Hoepen of ART made a lovely move at Mirabeau on Noel Leon. A good pass from Saturday's podium finisher.

Mini would still have a decent sized gap over Mansell as the safety car would be deployed due to an incident at Mirabeau involving NIkola Tsolov, Noel Leon and Sami Meguetounif.

Tsolov hopelessly sent a desperate move to the inside of the corner and put both drivers into the barriers as Meguetounif was unaware of what was around the corner and pulled left and brushed the wall next to the other two cars. Tsolov would be handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.

Tsolov and Leon continued on while Meguetounif was out as he could not get going again.

End of lap 22 and the safety car returned to the pit lane and Mini got the race back underway and maintained the lead. Green flag racing conditions would not last for long as the safety car would be back out in no time at all.

Van Hoepen and Loake were battling out through the Nouvelle Chicane and Tabac but Van Hoepen, unassisted, ran into the wall and was forced to retire from the race with his rear wing and rear suspension significantly damaged.

Once everything was cleared, there would be a one lap shootout to the flag. Mini bolted well and streaked clear of Mansell and looked to have it covered. He made it eight different winners in eight races so far in Formula 3 in 2024. A fantastic look for the series to show how tight it is.

With the victory, for the first time in 2024, Gabriele Mini takes the championship lead off Leonardo Fornaroli, who dropped to third. Browning maintains second position in the standings.

Mini won from pole to flag again, like he did in 2023. Christian Mansell came home in second for ART, making it all three ART drivers to have had one podium and one retirement from the Monaco races, with Van Hoepen and Tsolov getting a podium in the sprint and Mansell retiring.

Luke Browning kept up his consistency with a third place finish in the feature race ahead of Arvid Lindblad, who came home in a very decent fourth place for Prema. Former championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli was fifth ahead of the other Prema of Dino Beganovic who was sixth.

Mari Boya was seventh for Campos ahead of Tim Tramnitz, Joseph Loake and Oliver Goethe who completed the top 10.

Gabriele Mini, the Alpine Academy driver had a fantastic weekend of things. He topped Thursday practice, pole on Friday in qualifying and winner now on Sunday in the feature race and for extra measure he leaves Monte Carlo with the Formula 3 championship lead. Mini has a four point lead over second placed Browning with 29 points separating the top seven in the championship.

Where will the championship tide turn next? Find out when Formula 3 heads to Barcelona between June 21-23.

2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 4 - Monaco feature race provisional classification

1. Gabriele Mini (Italy, Prema Racing)
2. Christian Mansell (Australia, ART Grand Prix)
3. Luke Browning (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
4. Arvid Lindblad (Great Britain, Prema Racing
5. Leonardo Fornaroli (Italy, Trident)
6. Dino Beganovic (Sweden, Prema Racing)
7. Mari Boya (Spain, Campos Racing)
8. Tim Tramnitz (Germany, MP Motorsport)
9. Joseph Loake (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
10. Oliver Goethe (Germany, Campos Racing)
11. Kacper Sztuka (Poland, MP Motorsport)
12. Tommy Smith (Australia, Van Amersfoort Racing)
13. Callum Voisin (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
14. Santiago Ramos (Mexico, Trident)
15. Sebastian Montoya (Colombia, Campos Racing)
16. Alex Dunne (Republic of Ireland, MP Motorsport)
17. Max Esterson (United States, Jenzer Motorsport)
18. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Thailand, AIX Racing)
19. Sophia Floersch (Germany, Van Amersfoort Racing)
20. Joshua Dufek (Austria, AIX Racing)
21. Cian Shields (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
22. James Hedley (Great Britain, Jenzer Motorsport)
23. Noel Leon (Mexico, Van Amersfoort Racing)
24. Nikita Bedrin (Italy, AIX Racing)
25. Piotr Wisnicki (Poland, Rodin Motorsport)
26. Martinius Stenshorne (Norway, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
27. Nikola Tsolov (Bulgaria, ART Grand Prix)
28. Laurens Van Hoepen (Netherlands, ART Grand Prix) DNF
29. Sami Meguetounif (France, Trident) DNF
30. Charlie Wurz (Austria, Jenzer Motorsport) DNF

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - f1journal.co.uk