The ART Grand Prix team, a benchmark in the categories for young drivers aspiring to F1, managed to place two of its three drivers on the podium in the Formula 3 Sprint Race at the 81^st Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco: Bulgaria’s Nikola Tsolov won, ahead of Germany’s Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport) and Tsolov’s team-mate, Dutchman Laurens van Hoepen.

The French team’s third driver, Christian Mansell, was eliminated on the first lap when five cars piled up on the track near Casino de Monte-Carlo, causing the yellow and then red flags to come out. It took the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) marshals around twenty minutes to remove the cars and debris from the pile-up, before the race resumed.

There were still 22 laps to go, for 25 of the 30 cars entered this week, and Tsolov, 17, in his Alpine-badged single-seater, opened up a gap on Tramnitz. He then drove relatively quietly to a prestigious victory, 4 seconds ahead of the young German, the podium being completed by van Hoepen.

This Sprint Race was run on an inverted grid, for the top 12 drivers in qualifications. There was no miracle for the favourites in the long race on Sunday morning at 8.00am, and all the major players finished grouped between 7^th and 11^th place, including Swede Dino Beganovic and Briton Luke Browning, and above all Italians Leonardo Fornaroli and poleman Gabriele Mini. They will both start from the front row early Sunday morning.

Sprint Race Provisional Classification after 23 Laps