Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

2016 Monza GP2 and GP3 Series rounds

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Date
  
3 September 2016

Driver
  
Pierre Gasly

Laps
  
30

Time
  
1:31.199

2016 Monza GP2 and GP3 Series rounds

Location
  
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy

Course
  
Permanent racing facility 5.793 km (3.6 mi)

The 2016 Monza GP2 and GP3 Series rounds were a pair of motor races that was held on 3 and 4 September 2016 at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in the Italy as part of the GP2 Series and GP3 Series. It was the ninth round of the 2016 GP2 season and the seventh round of the 2016 GP3 season. The race weekend supported the 2016 Italian Grand Prix.

Contents

Background

In GP3, Ralph Boschung would return to the category after sitting out the previous round in Belgium due to financial difficulties. As well as this, Óscar Tunjo would not return to the category for this round after making his return in Belgium.

Qualifying

Pierre Gasly took another pole with team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi in a close second to continue the dominant form of the Prema team. However, due to irregularities in the tyre pressures, Giovinazzi was demoted toward the end of the grid, elevating third place Artem Markelov to the front row. The second row will consist of Arthur Pic and Mitch Evans.

Notes
1.^ – Giovinazzi and Jeffri were excluded from qualifying after being deemed to run illegal tyre pressures during the session.

Feature Race

Antonio Giovinazzi won what was a chaotic race after a mid-race accident shuffled the pack and elevated himself, Raffaele Marciello and Gustav Malja up the pack. On lap 15, a Arthur Pic collided with Sergio Canamasas through the second Lesmo. The pair were racing side-by-side and after barely leaving enough space through the corner, Pic lost control through the corner and counter-steered straight into Canamasas' rear wheel, sending him into a roll. Pic expressed frustration with the incident, although stewards later deemed him to be at fault for the incident - handing him a three-place grid penalty as a consequence. The safety car put Gasly from a comfortable first to fourth and now behind drivers on brand-new tyres. With four laps to go, it was Marciello leading from Giovinazzi and Malja. On the final lap, Giovinazzi benefited from the use of DRS and passed Marciello to take a home victory from Marciello (thereby making it an Italian one-two) and Malja. As well as this, Luca Ghiotto achieved the fastest lap, completing a successful race for the Italians on home soil.

Notes
1.^ – Eriksson was given a five-second penalty after having been deemed to have forced another driver off the circuit. 2.^ – Gelael was initially given a ten-second stop-go penalty for failing to slow under double-yellow flags, after setting his fastest sector times under the Safety Car period. After crossing the start/finish line more than twice without serving the penalty, he was disqualified from the race.

Sprint Race

Norman Nato took his first win since the opening race of the championship, beating the Prema Racing pair of Gasly and Giovinazzi with a comfortable margin.

1.^ – Markelov and Latifi were penalised after it was deemed that neither driver slowed sufficiently for the Virtual Safety Car. They were each given the equivalent of a drive-through-penalty (20 seconds) applied to their race times.

Qualifying

Charles Leclerc took his third pole of the year and ART Grand Prix's sixth straight of the year, followed by the Arden International duo of Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken.

Notes
1.^ – Janosz was issued a three-place grid penalty after causing a collision with Arjun Maini. Seeing as how he could not serve his penalty in full, he started the feature race from the pitlane.

Race 1

It was a British lockout with Jake Dennis taking the victory, Jack Aitken achieving second and Jake Hughes third, as well as the fastest lap of the race.

Race 2

Nyck de Vries took his first GP3 victory to put ART Grand Prix beyond reach in the GP3 Teams Championship. Team-mate Albon took second place whilst Antonio Fuoco achieved third in his home race.

Standings after the round

GP2 Series
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
  • GP3 Series
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
  • References

    2016 Monza GP2 and GP3 Series rounds Wikipedia