Photo: FOTOSPEEDY
Thai racer Sandy Stuvik emerged victorious in an eventful second F3 Open race at Monza, securing the lead of the race in the final sector of the final lap. As a result of this, he returned to first in the standings, having lost the lead to Team West-Tec’s Ed Jones after race one.
The drivers spent the first two laps behind the safety car and, when the race went green, polesitter Alexandre Cougnaud almost instantly surrendered the lead to Santiago Urrutia.
While Urrutia looked comfortable in first, leading the opening seven laps, his race came to an abrupt end after a mistake into the first Lesmo. The retirement of the race leader set up a huge fight for the win, with Nelson Mason,?Stuvik, Alex Toril, Mario Marasca and Cougnaud partaking in the battle for first.
The lone BVM challenger at the front was soon eliminated from victory contention after a mistake sent him down the order. Soon, it came down to a fight between the three RP drivers after Mason was forced to settle for fifth due to a mistake in the late stages of the race.
On the final lap, Stuvik narrowly edged out Cougnaud for the race win, with the Frenchman narrowly taking second ahead of Toril. Despite his mistake, Marasca recovered to fourth.
Behind the top five, all the pointscoring drivers recorded their best results of the season, with Artur Janosz leading Richard Gonda, Andres Saravia, Huan Zhu and Tommaso Menchini.
Gonda also celebrated his sixth Copa class victory, with the Slovakian closing in on class title as Menchini and Che One Lim completed the podium.
With the wrong tyre strategy leaving Jones without any chance to score points, Stuvik now leads the championship by 20 points with one more round to go.
Race results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Sandy Stuvik | RP Motorsport | 16 laps in 35:39.433 |
| 2 | Alexandre Cougnaud | RP Motorsport | 1.258 |
| 3 | Alex Toril | RP Motorsport | 1.486 |
| 4 | Mario Marasca | BVM Racing | 2.740 |
| 5 | Nelson Mason | Team West-Tec | 4.718 |
| 6 | Artur Janosz | Campos Racing | 6.939 |
| 7 | Richard Gonda | Drivex School | 11.516 |
| 8 | Andres Saravia | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 14.130 |
| 9 | Huan Zhu | Team West-Tec | 28.818 |
| 10 | Tommaso Menchini | Corbetta Competizioni | 30.607 |
| 11 | Che One Lim | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 33.192 |
| 12 | Vicky Piria | BVM Racing | 39.008 |
| 13 | Sean Walkinshaw | Team West-Tec | 44.711 |
| 14 | Nicola Pohler | DAV Racing | 53.328 |
| 15 | Denis Nagulin | Campos Racing | 1:03.569 |
| 16 | Alexey Chuklin | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:29.542 |
| 17 | Trino Rojas | RP Motorsport | 1:34.989 |
| 18 | Ed Jones | Team West-Tec | 1:36.449 |
| 19 | Cameron Twynham | Team West-Tec | 1:37.995 |
| 20 | Hector Hurst | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:47.659 |
| 21 | Liam Venter | Team West-Tec | 1:59.127 |
| 22 | Gerardo Nieto | DAV Racing | +1 lap |
| 23 | Saud Al-Faisal | RP Motorsport | +1 lap |
| 24 | Yarin Stern | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | +2 laps |
| NOT CLASSIFIED | |||
| Damiano Fioravanti | Corbetta Competizioni | +7 laps | |
| Santiago Urrutia | RP Motorsport | +10 laps | |
| Igor Urien | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | +12 laps | |
| Falco Wauer | Team West-Tec | +13 laps | |
| Valeria Carballo | Campos Racing | +15 laps | |
Championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Pts |
| 1 | Sandy Stuvik | 239 |
| 2 | Ed Jones | 219 |
| 3 | Nelson Mason | 182 |
| 4 | Santiago Urrutia | 158 |
| 5 | Alex Toril | 141 |
| 6 | Alexandre Cougnaud | 99 |
| 7 | Hector Hurst | 97 |
| 8 | Yarin Stern | 72 |
| 9 | Mario Marasca | 52 |
| 10 | Vicky Piria | 29 |
| 11 | Alexey Chuklin | 28 |
| 12 | Artur Janosz | 16 |
| 13 | Roberto La Rocca | 15 |
| 14 | Valeria Carballo | 14 |
| 15 | Andr?s Saravia | 14 |
| 16 | Spencer Pigot | 10 |
| 17 | Brandon Maisano | 10 |
| 18 | Richard Gonda | 10 |
| 19 | Denis Nagulin | 8 |
| 20 | Emil Bernstorff | 6 |
| 21 | Mattia Vita | 5 |
| 22 | Gerardo Nieto | 4 |
| 23 | Liam Venter | 4 |
| 24 | Che One Lim | 3 |
| 25 | Nicolas Pohler | 2 |
| 26 | Huan Zhu | 2 |
| 27 | Luca Orlandi | 1 |
| 28 | Jonathan Legris | 1 |
| 29 | Tommasso Menchini | 1 |