Badoer survives Monaco chaos to claim maiden F3 Feature Race victory

Brando Badoer claimed his maiden Formula 3 victory at Monaco, converting a front-row start into a composed race win as drama unfolded all around him throughout the Feature Race at Monte Carlo.

A critical start at Turn 1

Freddie Slater maintained third from the start, though Ugo Ugochukwu was pressing hard behind him. The Campos car of Nael attempted to claw back the lead in the opening laps, but any ambitions were immediately suspended when a yellow flag flew on Lap 2. Tuukka Taponen had made contact with the wall at Rascasse following a side-by-side battle with Maciej Gladysz, prompting a Safety Car intervention and sending a number of drivers into the pits.

Badoer controls the restart

It was a torrid afternoon for Woohyun Shin, who collected a 10-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement and was also placed under investigation for pit lane speeding. A lap later, a further five-second penalty was handed down for the same offence.

Further back, Yevan David carved his way up the order with a decisive move on Christian Ho onto the start-finish straight, moving into 18th and setting his sights on José Garfia's PREMA. In the Ezno Deligny and Nanhavud Bhirombhakdi battle, chicane-cutting incidents from both drivers added further incident to an already eventful midfield.

The race comes alive in the closing stages

By Lap 19, Badoer had opened a commanding 2.8-second gap at the front. Behind him, Nael and Slater remained locked in a tense duel, with just 0.4 seconds separating them — but the narrow streets of Monte Carlo offered the TRIDENT driver no room to find a way through.

On Lap 20, Fernando Barrichello limped his AIX machinery back to the pit lane, seemingly with a mechanical issue. A late yellow flag, brought out as Nicola Lacorte lost positions on the timing board, injected a final note of uncertainty into the closing laps. But Slater ultimately fell away from Nael in the final two laps, the gap between them ballooning to a striking 11.5 seconds as the Briton resigned himself to the final step of the podium.

A day after Hiyu Yamakoshi's victory in the Sprint Race, it was Badoer who wrote his name into the Monaco weekend's history books. He crossed the line first to take his maiden F3 win, with Nael settling for second — left to reflect on what might have been had the lights-out moment gone differently — and Slater completing the podium in third.

Ugochukwu and Ernesto Rivera rounded out the top five. Rivera's result was particularly notable, having missed the opening round of the season through injury. Del Pino and Giusti finished seventh and eighth respectively, with Sprint Race winner Xie ninth and Noah Stromsted completing the points scorers in tenth.