Monza F3.5: Binder inherits win after Nissany penalty

Nissany was into the lead off the line from second, thanks to pole-sitter Pietro Fittipaldi suffering a poor start.

The Brazilian was passed by several cars by the time he reached Turn 1, and then made contact with Damiano Fioravanti on the exit of the first chicane, picking up a puncture.

While he was up to first, Nissany went wide at the first corner and rejoined in the lead, a move for which he was later given a five-second time penalty.

Nissany led for the rest of the race, but couldn't build a lead bigger than two seconds over Binder, meaning it was the Austrian who was victorious at the chequered flag.

The early stages of the race saw an all-AVF duel for the final podium position.

Matevos Isaakyan initially held on to the spot, but was demoted by Egor Orudzhev on Lap 6.

However, Orudzhev failed to pull away and was soon under pressure from Isaakyan, who eventually took advantage of his teammate running wide at the second Lesmo corner.

Isaakyan held on to third afterwards, but Orudzhev continued to lose ground, and was overtaken by Alfonso Celis as well.

He then came under pressure from the other Fortec car of Diego Menchaca and Nelson Mason, but managed to keep the aforementioned duo at bay for fifth.

Mason stole sixth from Menchaca with a late last-corner overtake.

Konstantin Tereshchenko was eighth ahead of Giuseppe Cipriani, who was up to sixth after the start, and still matched his best finish of the season in ninth.

After pitting for a new rear right tyre, Fittipaldi was a minute behind ninth place, and closed the gap to less than 20 seconds until the finish, setting the fastest lap in the process.

Both of Nissany's RP Motorsport teammates retired, with Yu Kanamaru pulling into the pits after the formation lap from fifth, and Fioravanti stopping at the Roggia chicane during the race.

UPDATE: Cipriani received a penalty and dropped down to 10th, promoting Fittipaldi to ninth.

Race 1 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/ Delay
1	Rene Binder	Lotus	42m18.590s
2	Roy Nissany	Rp Motorsport	3.120
3	Matevos Isaakyan	SMP Racing by AVF	13.611
4	Alfonso Celis	Fortec Motorsports	24.053
5	Egor Orudzhev	SMP Racing by AVF	34.635
6	Nelson Mason	Teo Martin Motorsport	35.294
7	Diego Menchaca	Fortec Motorsports	35.381
8	Konstantin Tereschenko	Teo Martin Motorsport	52.242
9	Pietro Fittipaldi	Lotus	+1 Lap
10	Giuseppe Cipriani	Il Barone Rampante
-	Damiano Fioravanti	Rp Motorsport
-	Yu Kanamaru	Rp Motorsport