Hughes wins frenetic F3 race at Monza, Piastri taken out

Jake Hughes evaded drama in a chaotic race to claim his second victory of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 season at Monza.

The HWA Racelab driver shadowed the leading pack in the early stages and took advantage of a puncture for erstwhile leader Enzo Fittipaldi to move into the top three.

Third place became second when Lirim Zendeli ran wide into Turn 1 when attempting a move on Liam Lawson, before Hughes himself successfully pulled off a pass on the Red Bull Formula 1 junior on Lap 10 to surge into the lead.

Hughes controlled proceedings from there on in to lead home Lawson by nearly two seconds, while the championship battle pendulum swung once again in dramatic fashion behind.

First, F3 points leader Oscar Piastri was taken out on Lap 10 after getting punted off by Carlin’s Clement Novalak at Turn 1.

Piastri was spun into the gravel and collected David Schumacher’s Carlin and the Charouz of polesitter Michael Belov in the four-car plie-up.

Novalak had already taken out Piatri’s teammate and main championship rival Sargeant on Saturday.

It looked as though Sargeant was going to take advantage of Piastri’s misfortune to cut his points advantage having remarkably rose from 26th on the grid into the top-five, but the American made contact with Prema teammate Frederik Vesti when attempting a move at Ascari that ultimately ended both drivers’ races.

It means Piastri maintains an eight-point lead in the championship heading into next weekend’s finale at Mugello.

After claiming the teams’ championship on Saturday, it was a disastrous Sunday for Prema, with the Italian outfit recording its first triple three-car retirement of the 2020 season on home soil.

Theo Pourchaire dropped back to 17th early on but charged back through the order to complete the podium behind Lawson, with both drivers keeping themselves in championship contention heading to Mugello.

ART Grand Prix’s Alex Smoylar passed Zendeli late on to grab fourth, with Campos driver Alex Peroni a strong sixth.

Pierre Louis Chovet claimed his first points finish since making his F3 debut at Spa-Francorchamps with seventh for Hitech Grand Prix, while Roman Stanek also claimed his maiden points and Oli Caldwell rounded out the points-paying positions in eighth.