James Wharton had to dig deep at Monza over the weekend. After a challenging qualifying session and a pointless sprint race, the Australian driver finally secured a top-10 finish in Sunday's feature race, becoming Prema's sole points scorer from the Italian round.
Qualifying was not kind to Wharton, as he could only manage 15th on the grid. Prema struggled to match the leading pace in the unusual split-session format, where drivers were afforded little more than one meaningful flying lap. Wharton was unable to improve sufficiently to put himself towards the front of either race grid.
"The pace wasn't quite there today but I feel there's still a lot to improve across the rest of the weekend," Wharton said after qualifying. "There's still a long way to go and Monza offers plenty of opportunities to make good steps forward. Full focus on the races now and having two clean races and coming away with some points."
In the sprint race, Wharton showed promise, climbing from 15th to as high as seventh during the early stages, remaining in contention for a top-10 finish despite multiple Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car interruptions. However, his challenge faded later in the race, and a post-race penalty for his involvement in a collision left him classified 21st.
"Overall it was a very strong start to the race but after that, I just didn't quite have the pace towards the end," he said. "So we ended up dropping back out of the points, which isn't great but I had a really good first couple of laps though and I have to take the positives away from that."
Taito Kato claimed his maiden F3 victory in the sprint ahead of championship leader Freddie Slater, whose charge from 12th to second extended his advantage over Ugo Ugochukwu.
In the feature race, Wharton fought his way from 14th on the grid to secure 10th place, taking the final points-paying position behind Enzo Deligny. The race featured several interruptions, including an early Safety Car and another neutralisation late on after separate problems for Slater and Ernesto Rivera.
"Overall a difficult weekend," Wharton said. "The pace wasn't quite there throughout both races, although we scored points today when perhaps the pace wasn't quite there to do that, so we maximised what we could."
He stressed the need for improvement ahead of the Madrid round. "We have to work hard over the next couple of days to make sure we come back to Madrid a little bit stronger, making a step in qualifying is going to be super important. Overtaking in Madrid is very difficult so starting at the front will be key."
Nicola Lacorte won the feature race for DAMS ahead of Tuukka Taponen and Kato, while the championship fight tightened considerably after contrasting fortunes for the two title contenders, with Slater retiring after a right-rear tyre problem.
Read Also
Supercars announces Mark Pejic as new COO, part of leadership team changes. Analysis of the impact on the future of the Australian racing series.
Teemu Suninen clinched the 2025 ERC title with a runner-up finish in Wales and Power Stage win. Ville Vatanen also secured the ERC3 crown.
Maserati reportedly in talks with Huawei and JAC for tech platform. Can this deal save the Tridente? Full analysis here.
Continue with Google
Discussion (0)
Join the Discussion!
Sign in easily to start commenting, replying, and interacting with other readers.
Latest Comments
No comments yet. Be the first!