PREMA Racing secured a points finish in a hectic Sprint Race today at Monza as the FIA Formula 3 Championship got underway at the fast northern Italian track.
Starting around the top-10 of the reverse grid after their strong qualifying performance yesterday, Noel Leon and Ugo Ugochukwu did a solid job fighting within the pack and dealing with the race situations, but ultimately suffered from tyre degradation late and dropped a few spots. The Mexican finished in P8, while the American ended up just shy of the points zone in P11, the same spot he had taken from.
Brando Badoer had a competitive run, fighting back from a tough position on the grid and making his way into the top-10 battle. Contact damage eventually forced him to pit for a new wing, resulting in a P27.
#1 BRANDO BADOER
"Sprint race done here in Monza. We had great pace, I made my way up into the fight for P7 but then I just got driven into so I had to pit for a wing change and finished in the back."
#2 NOEL LEÓN
"It was quite a chaotic sprint race here in Monza, it started really well but towards the end we struggled a bit with the tyres. We still managed to cross the line in P8, not ideal but tomorrow we start from P3 and we’ll do our best to finish on the podium."
#3 UGO UGOCHUKWU
"Tricky race overall. We had a good start and in the first part of the race the pace was good, getting up to P6 but then we started to struggle a bit with the tyres towards the end and fell back to P11. We’ll need to see what we can do better for tomorrow and achieve better race pace overall."