F3 Monaco: Tsolov takes maiden win in disrupted sprint race (2024)

The ART driver was rarely threatened as team-mate Laurens van Hoepen dropped to third behind Tim Tramnitz at the start and was unable to recover the position, despite a lack of pace from his German rival.

Remarkably, Tsolov's success means that there is yet to be a repeat winner in F3 this season, with seven different drivers having taken to the top step of the podium.

After a typical Monaco start which saw seven drivers - Sophia Floersch, Tommy Smith, Kacper Sztuka, Charlie Wurz, Martinius Stenshoorne, Cian Shields and Piotr Wisnicki – noted for track limits violations at Sainte Devote, the only real action of the day came on the first run through Casino Square.

Instigating things were Christian Mansell and Arvid Lindblad, with the latter appearing not to see the car to his outside as he swung wide to take the normal racing line into the right-hander of the complex.

The ensuing contact resulted in Lindblad facing backwards with Joshua Dufek, Alex Dunne and Shields getting caught up in the melee. All five drivers retired on the spot, with the initial contact between Lindblad and Mansell subject to a post-race investigation.

In the squeeze to get past, Sami Meguetounif had a lucky escape after contact with Wisnicki briefly tipped him onto two wheels.

Initially covered by the safety car, the red flags were quickly displayed with some of the cars stuck fast together. Such was the difficulty in separating Dunne and Mansell's cars that they were pushed away while still interlinked nose to gearbox.

A strong start for Luke Browning went somewhat under the radar as he made a pair of audacious moves around the outside of Lindblad at Sainte Devote and Leonardo Fornaroli, the driver he had lost the championship lead to at Imola, at Massenet.

Following a half-hour delay, Tsolov led the field away on the rolling restart and gained a quick advantage over Tramnitz, who was caught napping by the early jump.

With the race settling into a typical Monaco follow-the-leader affair, the lap count steadily ticked over until lap 13, when contact between Floersch, who was now carrying a 10-second penalty, and Sztuka resulted in race-ending damage for both, with the latter stopping on the track and causing a further safety car period.

Having again successfully negotiated the restart, Tsolov endured a heart-in-mouth moment when he was investigated for failing to follow the race director's instructions with regard to weaving on a restart.

The penalty for weaving beyond the prescribed point is five seconds, a margin was quickly instructed to pull out over Tramnitz. But with four laps remaining, he was able to ease off when the stewards cleared him of any wrongdoing.

The effect at the top of the standings is that Fornaroli remains first, although with a reduced two-point lead over Browning, who finished one place clear of his rival in eighth.