MP Motorsport driver Jonny Edgar has took his first Formula 3 victory of his career in a chaotic, Safety Car riddled finale in Monza that saw Prema crowned as the team champions and an all-British podium at the end of it.

Polesitter Oliver Goethe complained of throttle issues as the grid formed for the start, as the Trident driver pulled off the grid towards the pit lane, resulted into an aborted start.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Caio Collet lead the field away for the second formation lap, which also saw the ART of Kaylen Frederik stall on the grid, and getting wheeled into the pit lane.

Once the start did get underway, Collet got away cleanly as third place driver Paul Aron was put under pressure and overtaken by MP’s Jonny Edgar and newly crowned champion Gabriel Bortoleto flew past the Estonian’s Prema as well, launching himself onto the podium.

Yesterday’s Sprint race winner Franco Colapinto found himself stationary on the track after lap one contact leading to suspension damage, ending the MP driver’s hopes of retaining second in the championship and bringing out the Safety Car.

Collet lead the field away again on the fourth lap, as behind him, it was the Trident cars of Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli versus the Prema cars of Aron and Zak O’Sullivan as the teams fought for the Team Championship as well as second in the Driver Championship for Aron and O’Sullivan.

As DRS was enabled, racing became even more frantic, with both Aron and Bortoleto making mistakes and allowing O’Sullivan to jump the pair, launching the British driver into the podium positions, while Bortoleto

Edgar managed to get past Collet right as the Safety Car came out when ART’s Gregoire Saucy found the wall in the first Lesmo as the result of a puncture on his left rear tyre.

Once again, the field was lead away after a Safety Car restart, with Edgar making the late jump and holding onto the lead against Collet and Aron went wide, dropping all the way out of the points, giving O’Sullivan the upper hand for second place in the championship.

Bortoleto was once again on a charge, passing Nikola Tsolov, while his teammate Fornaroli seemed to briefly lose power, dropping the Trident down the order once again while a bit further up, a fight between O’Sullivan and Jenzer’s Taylor Barnard was forming, with the Jenzer driver winning that round.

It was a constant change of lead at the front between Edgar and Collet, with Barnard, O’Sullivan, and Bortoleto hot on their heels as a third Safety Car of the day appeared when Sebastian Montoya found himself stranded in the gravel at turn 5.

Edgar lead away on the third Safety Car restart, repeating his previous restart as it was still all to play for at the front.

O’Sullivan proved himself alert and jumped both Barnard and Collet, as well as challenging Edgar for the lead of the race but going wide.

It was once again the Safety Car at the top of the field, as Pepe Martí and Ido Cohen went off together, adding the total of retired cars to eight.

The next car to add to that total was the PHM by Roberto Faria, who pulled over at the pit lane exit while still under the Safety Car.

It was a one-lap shootout that would decide the race, as Edgar lead the field away one last time.

The MP driver got away well as O’Sullivan fought Collet for the second podium position but it was Barnard who jumped the Brazilian driver into third.

Edgar’s getaway allowed him to win ahead of O’Sullivan, who also got himself into second place in the championship, with the duo joined by Barnard for an all-British podium.

The top ten was completed by Collet, Bortoleto, Mari Boya, Aron, Christian Mansell, Dino Beganovic, and Rafael Villagomez.

Aron’s seventh place finish was enough to hold onto third in the championship, staying ahead of both Colapinto and Martí, both of whom failed to finish the race, while Beganovic in sixth managed to stay ahead of Mini in seventh.

Goethe, Collet, and Barnard complete the top ten in the championship.

Formula 3 qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix was riddled with red flags, with Trident’s Oliver Goethe fastest. But it was his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto who was the star, as his direct rivals failed to take pole and the two points that come with it, making the Brazilian the 2023 Formula 3 Champion in a shortened session that ended in the pit lane.

Ahead of the qualifying session, championship leader Bortoleto lead Prema’s Paul Aron by 38 points, with new Red Bull junior driver Pepe Martí trailing only a point behind in third, meaning the Brazilian driver could already unofficially take the title after the session.

It was a slow start of the session, as the drivers played a waiting game in the pit lane, as nobody wanted to lead the pack away.

Ahead of the session, the Jenzer team announced that Nikita Bedrin would not be partaking in the qualifying session after an issue during the free practice session.

Early problems ensued after the cars were finally out of the pitlane and Carlin’s Ido Cohen dipped a wheel onto the grass, leading to a spin for the Israeli driver and a red flag.

Following a brief red flag, the games were over and teams decided to send out their drivers straight away, trying to get ahead of any other possible stoppages.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Caio Collet made it to provisional pole after the first stint, pipping Aron, before Joshua Dufek, who is making his F3 debut this weekend, spun into the gravel, bringing out the next red flag to remove the stricken Campos.

Following the red flag, Trident sent out their drivers Bortoleto and Oliver Goethe, with Bortoleto jumping up to fifth and Goethe taking over provisional pole position before crashing, finding the barrier in the second Lesmo and bringing out the third red flag of the session with just over ten minutes left on the clock.

Eventually, the call came from race control to not resume the session.

This meant that either Aron or Martí failed to score, making Bortoleto the 2023 driver’s champion as the championship was once again decided in the pit lane.

Goethe set the fastest time but will have to serve a ten-place grid penalty, Collet and Aron complete the top three, followed by Jonny Edgar, Bortoleto, Gabriele Mini, Zak O’Sullivan, Leonardo Fornaroli, Luke Browning, and Taylor Barnard. Gregoire Saucy will start tomorrow’s Sprint Race from reverse pole.

Only two drivers on the current Formula 1 grid have the potential to match Max Verstappen, according to Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko.

Verstappen had yet another dominant weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix, topping Friday’s qualifying session by a whopping eight tenths before taking a five-place gearbox penalty for Sunday’s race, then taking both pole position and the victory during Saturday’s Sprint sessions.

He eventually turned his sixth place on the grid into a victory by over 20 seconds ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez.

Perez meanwhile, failed to make it to Q3 for five races in a row from Monaco to Silverstone, but found himself back on the front row in Belgium following his teammate’s penalty, but was unable to

Within nine laps, Verstappen was behind Perez and eight laps later, the Dutchman flew past, disappearing 22 seconds up the road.

As Verstappen is well on his way to his third World Championship title, questions have been asked about teammate Perez’ current form and inability to provide a challenge to the 25-year old.

Helmut Marko, however, isn’t too worried, as he thinks only two drivers on the current grid could beat Verstappen right now.

“I would perhaps say [Fernando] Alonso or [Lewis] Hamilton, but in the same car it would be very difficult,” Marko told DAZN.

Perez, who is in the same car as Verstappen, took two victories early in the season and is, in theory, still in championship contention, but for Marko, it seems to be a mere formality.

“Second place, behind Max is like a victory. He had a good quali, a good Sprint race, and had a controlled race with good speed.

“Second place, behind Max is like a victory.”

The Austrian also lauds both his driver and the team, as they remain unbeaten this season: “Max Verstappen wins easily no matter what. The whole team, every stop works, no mistakes are made, the whole team is fast and they are doing an incredible job.”

With 12 wins out of 12 races this season, there seems no stopping Red Bull, with some even suggesting that the team could win every race this season.

When asked about this prospect, Marko said: “Realistically I have to say no, but we already have 12 victories and at the beginning we said we could win 12 so, who knows?”

Perez has won two races so far, while Verstappen has already graced the top step of the podium ten times. The Dutchman could equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive race wins at his home race in Zandvoort later this month.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has given an update surrounding the timeline for the final decision on prospective new teams that want to join Formula 1 but warns that the federation “cannot manipulate anything” in the bid to expand the current grid.

Back in February, the FIA opened the application process for prospective new F1 teams, which would allow the federation to identify one or more new teams to join the current grid.

At the forefront of the ongoing saga has been the Andretti Cadillac, with Michael Andretti having publicly voiced his desire to join the championship while facing opposition from the teams that make up the current grid.

Among Andretti, it’s reported four other teams have submitted an application, while the current Sporting Regulations allow for a total of twelve teams.

And now the FIA President has provided an update on the timeline for these prospective teams, saying a final decision should be made within the next “four to six” weeks, which F1 will also be involved in.

“I hope we can make the announcement next month,” Ben Sulayem told Formula.hu.

“We are talking about serious people and we don’t want to exclude anyone without a thorough review of the applications we have received.

“We are talking about big names and big money. I think the letter of intent (idea) was the right decision and the contract says that there can be 12 teams in the F1 field.

“Of course, we don’t want just any team, we want A teams and we need a car manufacturer: I prefer manufacturers because it would be good for the sport.

“We’ve taken our time, the FIA team has worked very hard on the letter of intent, we’ve had meetings with the teams to review their bids and I think we’ll have a final decision in four to six weeks.”

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has previously hinted that the entry cost for new teams could rise, while Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has been vocal about the logistics of fitting an 11^th team into the paddock and onto the track.

“It’s obviously a political and financial issue,” Ben Sulayem added.

“But it’s clear to me that the FIA has to respect the treaties and we are regulated by the EU. We cannot manipulate anything.

“If a team is interested and our rules say we can have so many teams, how can we say no?

“I understand the concerns of other teams, especially the financial part of it, the distribution of it, but I am not here to upset anyone, I am here to do the right thing for the sport.

“We’re happy to sit down with everybody and give advice, but we can’t say to a big team that wants to come into F1, go and buy a stable or you can’t come. I think that’s wrong.”

Virtuosi driver Jack Doohan has taken his first race win of the 2023 Formula 2 season, in a race that was decided by unexpected strategic calls and no incidents, while Prema’s Frederik Vesti further stretched out his lead in the championship.

Pole sitter Doohan got away well, immediately covering off fellow Alpine junior Victor Martins, who got overtaken by championship leader Frederik Vesti.

The other Prema of Oliver Bearman lost position at the start and got overtaken by Enzo Fittipaldi in the Carlin, while the Van Amersfoort Racing cars of Juan Manuel Correa and Richard Verschoor put the young British driver under pressure.

Clement Novalak, who served a grid penalty for Saturday’s collision with Ralph Boschung, parked his car at a marshal post in the opening stages of the race, briefly bringing out a yellow flag, making it a weekend to forget for the Frenchman.

Up front, Vesti slowly closed the gap to Doohan, bringing the Prema car on the cusp of the DRS range of the Virtuosi.

Carlin’s Zane Maloney was the first driver to make the call for his mandatory stop on lap eight, getting rid of the soft compound Pirellis in favour of the mediums, as both Jak Crawford and Boschung followed the Bajan driver’s example.

Iwasa, who had started on the alternative strategy with the medium tyre, started finding lap time as the soft-compound runners started to feel their tyres fall off.

At the back of the field, Maloney started to get frustrated with fellow Red Bull junior Crawford, who briefly sent the Carlin driver onto the grass but eventually lost out on the position to the number three car.

Hadjar was the first driver within the top six to dive into the pits, followed by Theo Pourchaire on the next lap, who had been running a few seconds behind his teammate.

Amaury Cordeel in his Virtuosi made life difficult for both of the French drivers, as the Belgian hadn’t pitted yet, but put up a fight to both the ART and the Hitech.

Iwasa, followed by Bearman, Leclerc, and Maini on the next lap, came in for soft tyres, making a strategic call before the two drivers at the front came in for their set of medium tyres, with the yellow-walled Pirellis not showing the expected benefit and the soft tyres holding up better than expected.

Vesti blinked first of the top two, needing to cover off both of his championship rivals Pourchaire and Iwasa, while Martins also responded with a change to the medium tyres, landing right in between Vesti and Pourchaire.

Pourchaire ran out of road by battling the other ART, dropping behind both Martins and Hadjar and falling right into the clutches of Iwasa on the softer tyres, with the Japanese breezing by.

As everyone had made their mandatory stops, Doohan was six seconds clear of Vesti, as the Australian showed no sign of slowing down and kept stretching the gap to the Danish driver.

Iwasa overtook Hadjar with three laps left, outbraking the Frenchman going into turn one and minimising the points damange, as Pourchaire was over a second behind Hadjar and failed to make up positions.

Doohan took a comfortable victory with the bonus point for fastest lap, his first of what has been a frustrating season for the Australian, Vesti and Martins.

Iwasa and Hadjar followed the podium finishers, with Pourchaire two seconds adrift and Hauger, Fittipaldi, Correa, and Verschoor completing the top ten.

The second place finish allowed Vesti to further extend his lead in the championship over Pourchaire and Iwasa.

Lewis Hamilton’s contract has been a much-discussed topic in recent weeks, and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has now spoken on the topic as well, revealing that the deal is “emotionally” done.

The seven-time World Champion’s current deal is set to expire at the end of the 2023 season and has been a situation of much scrutiny, with both Wolff and Hamilton hinting that an extension is imminent.

Talking to Sky Sports F1 during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, a race Hamilton has won a record-equalling eight times, Wolff made a revelation about the state of negotiations with his driver.

“The status is we haven’t signed it [the contract] but emotionally we have done it,” the Austrian revealed.

Earlier this month at the Austrian Grand Prix, Wolff revealed that the discussions were no longer about the financial aspects of the contract.

“This is not a money discussion at all. It is about the future, what is it that we want to do right and optimise?”

Hamilton himself previously revealed that he was close to signing a new deal with his team, stating that it would take “half an hour” after commenting on it during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

Talking to the media on Thursday ahead of the grand prix, Hamilton stated that he expects an agreement on his contract to be completed soon, but he’s not been involved in all the steps of the process.

“I’ve been removed from it from the beginning,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to focus on all the other things I have going on. The team has been working on it in the background. There’s no negotiation left. It’s just all the small bits.”

Helmut Marko has given his initial thoughts of Daniel Ricciardo’s first day in the AlphaTauri, as the Australian driver made his return at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Friday marked the first time Ricciardo was back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car during a grand prix weekend since late November.

It was announced last week that the eight-time race winner would replace Nyck de Vries for the remainder of the season following a successful Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone.

With the rain coming down, the first free practice session at the Hungaroring turned into a washout, with no representative times set.

As the second practice session remained dry, Ricciardo clocked the 14^th fastest time, while his new teammate Yuki Tsunoda found himself up in fourth, four tenths clear of the Australian.

Talking to Motorsport Magazin, Marko assessed Ricciardo’s return. “He did okay.

“In the long runs, he was closer [to Tsunoda] but in the short runs, it was still lacking a bit.”

The Austrian also touched upon the mixed up order, which saw the likes of both Red Bulls and Mercedes a long way down the timing sheets.

“In the long run, we were clearly the fastest, it was very encouraging but it was not as convincing as it normally is.

“On a single lap, we still have to improve some things and we were not fast enough, we have to fight for it more.

“We have another practice session, and I hope we can solve our problems there.”

Hitech’s Gabriele Mini has taken his second victory of the year at the Formula 3 Sprint race in Budapest, keeping Jenzer’s Nikita Bedrin behind him, as Gabriel Bortoleto further extended his lead in the championship.

Jenzer’s Nikita Bedrin took the lead from pole sitter Gabriele Mini going around the outside of the first corner, while at the back end of the field, Hitech’s Sebastian Montoya, found himself colliding with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith, forcing both of them to pit for repairs.

With the DRS enabled, it was Alpine junior Nikola Tsolov versus the Williams juniors Franco Colapinto and Zak O’Sullivan, as Colapinto cleared the ART.

Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto bided his time, using the DRS to overtake the Campos of Christian Mansell, promoting him into the podium positions and dropping Mansell into the clutches of Paul Aron’s Prema.

Up at the front, Mini hang on to Bedrin’s Jenzer, and took the lead of the race on the eighth lap with relative ease.

With the Medium compoud tyres making their debut in the championship this year, the first struggles became clear halfway through the race, as drivers found the degradation to be higher than expected, as race leader Mini was told to take it easy, while Bedrin was still within DRS range, but was similarly trying to keep the tyres alive.

Prema’s O’Sullivan, who is set to start the feature race from pole tomorrow, had another go at Tsolov on lap 12, instead making contact and damaging his front wing, forcing the Brit into the pitlane.

At the same time, Montoya’s Hitech stopped on track at turn 12, activating the Virtual Safety Car and eventually bringing out the full Safety Car, ending the Colombian’s race after he’d been running at the back of the field since the start.

Mini and Bedrin saw their seven-second lead over the field disappear, as the Safety Car ended with three laps to go.

The top three held position at the restart, while Aron finally managed to pass Mansell, with Silverstone’s sprint race winner Oliver Goethe also passing the Campos for fifth place.

A little further down, Tsolov tangled with Pepe Marti, which found the Bulgarian driver stalling, resulting in another brief Virtual Safety Car to clear his car, while Marti was able to keep going.

Bortoleto managed to pass Bedrin in the penultimate corner, as the Jenzer driver only just managed to keep Aron behind, finishing a tenth in front of the Estonian driver.

Goethe finished fifth, followed by Mansell, Colapinto, Jonny Edgar, Gregoire Saucy, and Dino Beganovic taking the final point.

The F3 Feature Race is scheduled for tomorrow at 8:25 local time, with Prema driver O’Sullivan starting from pole.

The race suit worn by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen that saw him take his 41st career win and the team’s 100th during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend has raised over £100,000 after it was auctioned off for charity.

The 2023 Canadian Grand Prix saw Verstappen take his 41st career win, as the two-time World Champion equalled the late Ayrton Senna’s win tally.

Verstappen’s victory also marked a milestone of 100 race wins for the Red Bull team, making the Austrian outfit the fifth team in Formula 1 history to achieve this feat.

Following the race, it was announced that the race-worn suit, signed by the Dutchman, would be auctioned off, with the package also including an exclusive Meet & Greet with the driver, as well as a tour of the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes.

The auction, organised by F1 Authentics, raised a total of £108,497, which will go to Red Bull’s charity partner Wings For Life.

The organisation was founded in 2004 in the fight to find a cure for spinal cord injury, as the charity funds research projects and clinical trials.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner commented: “It’s amazing to see Max’s race suit auction raise over £100,000 for our Team Charity, Wings for Life, as part of our continued fundraising initiatives.

“It’s a special suit from our 100th race win and the winning bidder has a true piece of history.

“I would like to thank Memento Exclusives for working closely with us and Wings for Life to ensure we raised the maximum amount possible, which will go directly to fund spinal cord injury research.”

Wings for Life CEO Emma Hind added: “We are absolutely delighted to find out that a total of £108,497 was raised through Max’s race suit auction!

“We can’t thank both Oracle Red Bull Racing and Memento Exclusives enough in helping us reach this fantastic total!

“The incredible amount of money raised will help fund pioneering research projects in helping us to find a cure for spinal cord injury.”

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc will be sporting a special Gilles Villeneuve-inspired helmet this weekend, honouring the Canadian Ferrari driver, who tragically lost his life in 1982.

It was at the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix where Villeneuve won his first race for Ferrari, at the track that would later be renamed after him following his tragic death at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.

“Gilles Villeneuve, he was such an incredible driver,” Leclerc says in a social media video revealing the striking black and red design.

“So much passion he had for Ferrari, you could see straight away when he was going out on track. This is my special helmet for the weekend, it’s inspired by the design Gilles used to have.”

Last May, Leclerc drove Villeneuve’s 1979 Ferrari 312T4 at Fiorano, on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the Canadian’s accident at Zolder.

After that run, Leclerc said: “It was very special, I mean the experience was amazing. The cars were very different back then.

“As soon as I got into the car you can really feel that the safety that we have now is just incredible, and back then to push so much those cars with so little safety, you have to be quite mentally strong.

“It was nice and very playful also as a car, so it was cool.”

The helmet design for the Canadian Grand Prix weekend is another instance of the five-time Grand Prix winner honouring the legendary Ferrari driver, who took six race victories in his career, all of them with the Italian team.