Race Report

2017 Formula 1 Gran Premio d’Italia
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Monza (I), Length 5.793 km, 1^st/03^rd September 2017, Rounds 11 & 12
www.monzanet.it

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2017:
Alessio Lorandi (I), Juan Manuel Correa (USA) and Arjun Maini (IND)

No luck at Monza

The GP3 Series met up at the very fast Monza (I) circuit, as ever racing as one of the support races for the Formula 1 Gran Premio d’Italia 2017. This was their sixth outing in Europe supporting the 2017 Grand Prix Programme. At the start the weather was still agreeably warm, but then heavy rainfall changed the schedule completely. Competition was strong and everybody gave it their best shot to shine.

Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 02/09/17, 09.45 – 10.15, Weather: Rain, 14°C

The free practice session was held on Friday evening. Arjun and Alessio were 8^th and 9^th respectively, and Juan Manuel was not far behind in 12^th place. The session was held on a dry track, but immediately afterwards a heavy rainstorm washed over the circuit!

The qualifying session was scheduled for Saturday morning. Everyone was ready and waiting on wet weather tyres in the pitlane, but the heavily overcast sky and a very wet track led to the session finally being cancelled. According to the regulations, the results of the free practice session were now used to set the grid for race one.

GP3 Series

Race One (40 Minutes)

Saturday, 02/09/17, 17.50, Weather: Rain, 15°C

Chunks of the remaining Saturday program had to be postponed, cancelled or changed, due to heavy rainfall throughout the day. Even F1 Qualifying was postponed until late in the afternoon. After that the officials decided to move the GP3 Series Race One to Sunday morning and to cancel Race Two of the event. There may possibly be an extended program at the next event at Jerez (E), but no details are available just yet.

GP3 Series

Race One (40 Minutes)

Sunday, 03/09/17, 08.50, Weather: Sunny, 16°C

The sun was out on Sunday morning and the start of the race took place earlier than initially planned, to accommodate the longer race distance. Early in the morning the drivers were very eager to start after a full day of doing nothing but waiting around on Saturday. The field made it through the first chicane, but on the way to the second chicane Pulcini and Alessio clashed. Pulcini caught Alessio’s rear wheel, the latter running 6^th at the time. Pulcini rode over Alessio’s car and they went off together, hitting the barriers hard. The resulting damage was massive, though fortunately the drivers emerged unhurt. The Safety Car took over the field for 8 slow laps. At the restart Juan Manuel was soon in 9^th place, while Arjun, who had had to avoid the accident and had dropped back, was in 14^th. Once the DRS was enabled, positions started to change consistently. Juan Manuel, who had already moved up to 6^th, made an optimistic attack on Schothorst which went wrong. Juan Manual damaged his front wing and dropped back. Unfortunately he then collided with Arjun, leaving Arjun with a damaged rear wing. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed while Juan Manuel’s car was retrieved. Arjun, who had recovered to a promising 7^th place, tried to survive the final racing laps, but then his rear wing disintegrated, and he had no choice but to drive back to the pitlane. After too many incidents a very hectic race came to an end, with a hugely disappointing result for our team and with a lot of damage to the cars.

We are now hoping for better luck at the next race event at Jerez de la Frontera (E), which takes place in five week’s time, on the weekend of 8^th October 2017.

Championship standings after 11 out of 16 races:

1^st George Russell (GB), 162 points; 2^nd Jack Aitken (GB), 119 points; 3^rd Nirei Fukuzumi (JPN), 99 points; 4^th Anthoine Hubert (F), 97 points; 5^th Giuliano Alesi (F), 95 points; 6^th Alessio Lorandi (I), 63 points; 9^th Arjun Maini (IND), 53 points

2017 GP3 Series

For more information:

• www.gp3series.com
• www.italiaracing.net