After Ryan Carabott won each of the first 3 races this season, reigning champion Jake Sammut finally ended Carabott’s sequence, as he once again reigned supreme in the streets of Monte Carlo in what was an utterly dominant drive where he simply ran away from all the opposition. In addition, Sammut managed to achieve a grand slam in this race, as he started on pole, won, set the fastest lap of the race in addition to having led uninterrupted from start to finish.
Qualifying turned out to be a close affair and the last part was particularly dramatic given the fact that the rain started to come down. Jake Sammut emerged out first on the track and used this to his advantage to secure a provisional pole position with a lap time of 1:09.936, just a mere 0.018s ahead of Red Bull driver Brandon Bonello, with current Championship leader Carabott a mere 0.004s behind Bonello. Sammut did manage to improve upon his lap time by just over half a tenth, and it turned out to be enough to secure him pole as the rain, although light, was coming down and it proved impossible to improve upon personal best lap times. Adrian Manduca and Keith Vella rounded out the top 5 for Alpine and Alfa Romeo respectively.
At the start, Sammut got away cleanly and led going into the first corner. However, Bonello did not get an optimal launch and was overtaken by Carabott into turn 1. Unfortunately, down at the back, due to technical problems, Haas driver Kirsten Formosa could not get going and was excluded from the race. Otherwise, the start was extremely clean and proceeded without any problems. Mercedes driver Michael Pace, who had a disappointing qualifying position, managed to gain positions on both Alpine and Williams drivers Keith Muscat and Chris Ciantar respectively.
Sammut controlled the pace exceptionally well and was pulling away out in front, as Carabott struggled to keep up. Meanwhile, on lap 3, the first retirement of the race occurred as Vella crashed out in the tunnel which would certainly have been disappointing considering his strong qualifying performance. In a race that saw several accidents, the next driver to crash out was McLaren driver Simeon Nechev as he collided with Pace in what was a controversial incident.
This was a race that saw numerous errors, and championship leader Ryan Carabott was no exception, as he clipped his front wing and had to go into the pits at the end of lap 8, which was earlier than planned. A lap later, the next retirement of the race happened, as Muscat crashed out at the end of sector 1. On lap 9, another crash occurred, as Daylziel Tabone hit the wall at Tabac corner, and very shortly afterward, due to a lack of concentration, Manduca collided with Tabone and also retired from the race.
Out in front, Bonello pitted on lap 11 and re-emerged into some traffic which cost him considerable time relative to Sammut out in front. Meanwhile, Sammut pitted on the next lap and comfortably re-emerged in the lead of the race. Further drama with Championship leader Carabott occurred on lap 13, as, in attempting to pass Williams driver Chris Ciantar, he clipped his front wing once again and was forced to pit for a second time.
Bonello getting stuck in traffic was crucial and enabled Sammut to pull away massively. On lap 15, McLaren driver Christian Caruana made a move at the hairpin to get past Alpha Tauri driver Wayne Micallef and this led to contact also with Micallef’s team-mate Clinton Falzon. This further held up Bonello and this was crucial for Sammut to build up the gap out in front.
The next driver to retire from the race was Michael Pace, although he did so in the pit lane and the reasons as to why are still unknown. Meanwhile, there were also several incidents whereby drivers hit the wall and had to pit to repair front wing damage, most notably Wayne Schembri in the Red Bull as well as Micallef in the Alpha Tauri. The last driver to retire from the race was Carabott’s team-mate Ryan Zammit, as he crashed out on lap 32. Interestingly, despite so many crashes, the Safety Car was not deployed once on a track that is notorious for Safety Car deployments.
However, out in front, there was simply no stopping Sammut in the Ferrari, as he took the race victory and set the fastest lap on the final lap of the race having stopped for a fresh set of soft tires at the end given his enormous gap in the lead. Bonello took a solid second place, whilst despite damaging his front wing twice, Carabott managed to earn a podium. Impressively, Ciantar managed to score his first points of the season as he finished in 8th place, whilst his Williams team-mate Jamie Zahra managed to score a remarkable 4th place. The next race of this Championship will take place on Monday 29th November in Canada, do not miss out!
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