04/09/2016
NEWS STORY
Norman Nato dominated this morning's Sprint Race in Monza, grabbing the lead with a storming start before building a lead which would not be touched for his second win of the season ahead of PREMA teammates Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi.
When the lights went out poleman Mitch Evans had a poor getaway while Jordan King looked to have claimed the lead from P2, but his Racing Engineering teammate had other ideas: Nato eased up the inside into Turn 1 to steal the top spot, while behind them Luca Ghiotto was squeezed between Evans and a fast starting Gasly, with the Red Bull tester nabbing P3 ahead of his rivals.
The field headed for Della Roggia together, and it was soon clear that they were too close: Oliver Rowland tapped Ghiotto into a spin and retirement (picking up a 10 second penalty for the move), with Gustav Malja similarly pushing Evans out of the race (and picking up the same penalty) before also knocking an element off Giovinazzi's front wing as he looked to get away again, prompting a brief VSC period to remove the stricken cars.
When the race ran live again on lap 2 the order at the front was Nato from King, Gasly, Malja, Giovinazzi and Nobuharu Matsushita, with the Italian quickly taking revenge by claiming the Swede's scalp on lap 5. The PREMA pair were on their usual hot pace as Gasly hunted down King for lap after lap before striking on lap 9: the Frenchman went outside into Turn 1 to be inside for the chicane exit, before running side by side all the way to Della Roggia for the inside line and P2.
Further back Markelov was repeating his weekend long speed, making short work of mugging Matsushita for P6 and looking for more, as King slowly fell back into his rivals clutches: Giovinazzi eventually stole his podium on lap 17 at Turn 1. Malja was pushing the Briton all round the track, finally getting side by side with him up to Della Roggia on the final lap before cutting the corner, handing a run to the Russian. Up front Nato, Gasly and Giovinazzi ran their own pace to fill the podium, while King just denied P4 to Markelov despite a lunge at the line. Malja's time penalty promoted Alex Lynn to 6th after mugging Matsushita on the line, while Nicholas Latifi grabbed the final point of the race.
1. Norman Nato Racing Engineering
2. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing
3. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing
4. Jordan King Racing Engineering
5. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME
6. Alex Lynn DAMS
7. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix
8. Nicholas Latifi DAMS
9. Gustav Malja Rapax
10. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin
11. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport
12. Arthur Pic Rapax
13. Nabil Jeffri Arden International
14. Sergio Canamasas Carlin
15. Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME
16. Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing
17. Philo Paz Armand Trident
18. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International
19. Daniël de Jong MP Motorsport
Fastest Lap: Artem Markelov (RUSSIAN TIME) 1:33.727 (Lap 5)
Not Classified
Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix
Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing
Luca Ghiotto Trident
Drivers Standings after Italy
| Pos | Name | Nat | Team | Points |
| 1 | Gasly | FRA | Prema Racing | 174 |
| 2 | Giovinazzi | ITA | Prema Racing | 164 |
| 3 | Marciello | ITA | Russian Time | 138 |
| 4 | Sirotkin | RUS | ART Grand Prix | 115 |
| 5 | King | GBR | Racing Engineering | 112 |
| 6 | Nato | FRA | Racing Engineering | 107 |
| 7 | Rowland | GBR | MP Motorsport | 106 |
| 8 | Lynn | GBR | DAMS | 91 |
| 9 | Ghiotto | ITA | Trident | 90 |
| 10 | Markelov | RUS | Russian Time | 86 |
| 11 | Evans | NZL | Pertamina Campos Racing | 81 |
| 12 | Matsushita | JPN | ART Grand Prix | 60 |
| 13 | Malja | SWE | Rapax | 43 |
| 14 | Pic | FRA | Rapax | 36 |
| 15 | Gelael | INO | Pertamina Campos Racing | 24 |
| 16 | Latifi | CAN | DAMS | 22 |
| 17 | Kirchhofer | GER | Carlin | 20 |
| 18 | Canamasas | GBR | Carlin | 16 |
| 19 | Eriksson | SWE | Arden International | 10 |
| 20 | de Jong | NED | MP Motorsport | 6 |
| 21 | Jeffri | MAS | Arden International | 2 |
Team standings after Italy
| Pos | Team | Points |
| 1 | Prema Racing | 338 |
| 2 | Russian Time | 224 |
| 3 | Racing Engineering | 219 |
| 4 | ART Grand Prix | 175 |
| 5 | DAMS | 113 |
| 6 | MP Motorsport | 112 |
| 7 | Pertamina Campos Racing | 105 |
| 8 | Trident | 90 |
| 9 | Rapax | 79 |
| 10 | Carlin | 36 |
| 11 | Arden International | 12 |