Tim Tramnitz takes maiden win as championship goes to the final race

Tim Tramnitz (pictured) took his maiden win in the Monza sprint race on Saturday morning. Credit: Joe Portlock via Getty Images

German rookie Tim Tramnitz took victory for MP Motorsport in an action-packed final Formula 3 sprint race of 2024, which took place on Saturday morning.

Tramnitz has managed to take his maiden victory in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, which has come in a critical championship-deciding weekend, where all of the focus has been lying.

The Red Bull junior driver took victory from the Campos of Sebastian Montoya, who finished second narrowly ahead of Santiago Ramos, who was third for Trident.

After an action-packed race with a lot of drama and a lot of overtakes, Fornaroli leads the championship after the sprint race and had a one-point lead coming into the weekend over Gabriele Mini.

That lead has extended itself by two points but the top three, which includes Luke Browning, is separated by three points.

How the final sprint race of the 2024 Formula 3 Championship unfolded 

After a four week summer break, Formula 3 would return to racing action for one final weekend in 2024 at the Monza circuit, in a championship-deciding weekend. Six drivers would have the possibility of taking the championship title 

Gabriele Mini, Luke Browning, Arvid Lindblad, Dino Beganovic and Christian Mansell would be looking to try and de-throne Leonardo Fornaroli, who would come into the round with the championship lead.

It would be Fornaroli who would take pole position for the feature race and with it two extra championship points. However, Saturday morning would see the sprint race grid have the op 12 from qualifying reversed.

Therefore, it would be Tim Tramnitz who would start from pole position with Dino Beganovic starting alongside him on the front row, who is a championship challenger. It would be time to go racing for the final sprint race of the season.

There would be drama before the start of the race, as Christian Mansell would cause an extra formation lap, as he had a mechanical issue on the initial formation lap. Not what the ART driver needed and put a big dent in his championship hopes.

After the second formation lap it would be time to go racing for the final sprint race of the year. The lights would go out anfd an initial good start from Tim Tramnitz he would maintain the lead after covering off Beganovic. 

Beganovic would  into turn 1 as Sebastian Montoya would take second from Beganovic after being forced wide at turn 2 of the first chicane and would keep the place. There would be moves made all over the field on the first lap as Nikola Tsolov would go for a pass into Ascari but would lock up on cold tyres and go straight on into the gravel. Tsolov would rejoin safely enough but would drop all the way down the order.

Start of the second lap and there would be a pause of green flag racing as Tim Tramnitz would hold the race lead. The safety car would be deployed due to an incident at the first chicane as Noel Leon and Nikita Bedrin would end up in the gravel out of the race!

Leon would be hit through the back from his Van Amersfoort Racing teammate Tommy Smith and would end up collecting Nikita Bedrin through no fault of his own. Racing would be neutralised, while the marshals would clear the cars from being a track hazard. Smith would be handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.

Lap 6 would be the restart lap and it would be a good restart from Tramnitz and he would get a much better getaway than Montoya, who would be under pressure from Dino Beganovic and Sami Meguetounif, who would both be shovelled out - Beganovic dropping to fourth and Meguetounif dropping to sixth. Santiago Ramos would be up to third.

Leonardo Fornaroli would already start Sunday's feature race from pole position as he would be making great progress through the field and was flying along and would be up into the points as he would sit 10th in the order. He would make a move for ninth on Arvid Lindblad, one of his championship challengers.

Fornaroli was flying and on lap nine into the first corner would make a move for eighth on Martinius Stenshorne in the McLaren liveried Hitech. Fornaroli was having a fantastic race and was the fastest driver on circuit. Evidence of this would be him taking the fastest lap of the race so far.

One lap later and it would be an extra position gained from Fornaroli as he overtook Mari Boya.for seventh.

Dino Beganovic had been struggling a bit since the restart and was passed by Meguetounif and dropped to fifth, with a lap later he would be behind Alex Dunne for sixth. Not the result, Beganovic needed and would near enough end his championship challenge and leave him with a lot of work to do.

However, the entertaining racing would be halted due to the second safety car of the race would be deployed due to an incident at the first chicane involving two cars. It would be the Rodin Motorsport of Piotr Wisnicki and the Jenzer Motorsport of Max Esterson that would come together and would go into the gravel trap.

Wisnicki would go wide into the first corner and would try and keep the position ahead of Esterson but he would clip the curb on the inside and collide with the Jenzer Motorsport and both would be out of the race. Both would blame each other but the Stewards would investigate it after the race.

There would be one final lap of racing as at the end of lap 16 the safety car would come in as the two cars had been cleared and there would be a chance for one lap of racing. Tim Tramnitz would be under pressure from those behind, who were keen on taking victory. 

Tramnitz would maintain the lead but remarkably behind Luke Browning would make his way into the top eight as he would pass Fornaroli, in a critical fight for a few points, which could make all the difference ahead of the final feature race on Sunday morning.

Browning would have a great final lap and would make a charge towards Boya as Gabriele Mini would make his way ahead of Martinius Stenshorne into 10th for the final point in the order.

Out front, Tramnitz would be brilliant out in front and had maintained great pace after starting from pole position and had led the entire race throughout. Around the parabolica and the German rookie for one more round only, would see the chequered flag first and would take his maiden Formula 3 victory.

Tramnitz of MP Motorsport would take the win ahead of Sebastian Montoya for Campos, who was second. It would be MP Motorsport's third Formula 3 win at Monza in succession, after winning both races at Monza in 2023. Mexican driver Santiago Ramos would finish third for Trident.

Alex Dunne would finish fourth, making it two MP Motorsport cars inside the top five as Dino Beganovic would complete the top five as he finished fifth for Prema. Sami Meguetounif was sixth for Trident ahead of Luke Browning, who had driven a great race to finish seventh. 

Mari Boya was eighth to make it two Campos cars which finished inside the top 10. Leonardo Fornaroli and Gabriele Mini completed the points scoring and the top 10 finishers.

After the race, five points would separate the top three in the championship, ith today's points added. Should Fornaroli start the race tomorrow, that's when the pole position points will come into effect. 

After the sprint race, five points would separate Leonardo Fornaroli, Gabriele Mini and Luke Browning as the final race of the season will take place on Sunday morning with the feature race at Monza, taking place 07:35 UK time.

2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 10- Monza (season finale) sprint race provisional classification

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

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal