Coming off a win in Miami for Gabriele Minì in the feature race, MP Motorsport headed into Round 3 in Montreal, Canada, at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in high spirits, with Minì sitting in 2nd place, and Goethe in 11th place in the drivers' standings. Alongside MP Motorsport, in P3 for the team championship, Montreal proposed great potential to rise in the ranks.
With conditions similar to Miami's, where drivers were unfamiliar with the circuit, the main priority was to maximise time on track to familiarise themselves during the practice session.
Both drivers put in a decent amount of laps, with Gabriele running 19 laps and Oliver 22 laps.
Both showed great pace, with Minì setting 1:23.150, becoming the 12th fastest, and Oliver 19th fastest with a 1:23.751 lap time.
Free Practice Results:
Qualifying started well, with Gabriele, who, after the first lap of the session, started as the fastest. Unfortunately, as the session concluded, Gabriele's fastest lap time of 1:21.971 secured him P10. On the other hand, Oliver's fastest lap was a 1:22.705, only securing P19, as the driver hit the barrier in turn 1, inciting a red flag which ended the session. Post-Qualifying, Oliver was given a penalty, dropping him to P21. Even though the drivers did not start as high up in the pack as desired for the feature race, there was still an opportunity to make up places in the races ahead over the weekend.
Qualifying Results:
The sprint race with the partially reversed grid for the top ten from Qualifying started with Gabriele in P1 and Oliver in P20 due to a grid penalty for causing a red flag in Qualifying.
Gabriele had a great initial launch, pulling away from the rest of the grid very early on in the race. After a Safety Car on lap 11, Noel Leon was on the back of Gabriele. Gabriele pushed very hard and defended well, although he lost the position to Noel León on lap 19. A Safety Car on lap 20 brought Gabriele back into the fight for first, but unfortunately, Noel León pulled away, leaving Gabriele to defend for a P2 finish, which he brought home.
Oliver started in a difficult position at the back of the grid; he exhibited great pace from the start, pushing to P18 by lap 2. Oliver slowly made his way up the grid, and in a well-executed overtake on lap 10, he snatched P16 from Cian Shields. Oliver's race stayed clean, and he avoided the on-track scuffles; by the end of the race, he had made up eight places. Once penalties were awarded to other drivers, he finished in P10.
Overall, both drivers exhibited great pace, with Minì controlling the first half of the race well, only losing out on P1 but coming home with a solid P2 finish, and Oliver delivered a great drive, making up the positions lost to his penalty.
Reverse-Grid Race Results:
The feature race started with a wet and dry track, with Gabriele starting in P10 and Oliver in P20. At the end of the first launch of Lap 1, Gabriele had moved up to P7, while Oliver fell back to P21.
With a struggle in the beginning, Oliver was unable to make up many places in the race, but for the bulk of the race was able to stay out of the chaos that occurred at the back of the grid, where he had made his way up to P10 by the closing few laps of the race. Unfortunately for Oliver, an incident on lap 34 ended his race in the closing two minutes, resulting in the race ending under safety car.
On laps 3 and 4, Gabriele battled with Rafael Câmara, losing a position, falling to P8, but after an incident in the race where the race leader crashed out, he regained his P7 position.
A following Safety Car later on in lap 9 saw many drivers make their mandatory pitstop, including both Gabriele and Oliver. This worked in both MP drivers’ favour, with Gabriele coming out of the pits in 9th and Oliver in P17.
Gabriele had a great race, keeping a cool head. He overtook Mari Boya on lap 14, snatching up P7, and not soon after, as a result of a contact further up the grid on lap 15, Gabriele was promoted to P5. Unfortunately, before the end of lap 15, Gabriele was overtaken by Rafael Câmara, falling to P6.
Post virtual safety car on lap 18, Raphael Camara spun ahead of Gabriele in T2, but Gabriele kept a cool head, avoided the conflict ahead, and was promoted to P5. Only a lap later, Gabriele overtook Roman Bilinski for P3.
The closing section of the race consisted of a climactic battle with Alex Dunne, in which Dunne overtook Gabriele on the start of lap 25, but in T13 of the same lap, Gabriele launched back into P3. Eventually, on lap 27, Gabriele lost the position to Dunne, but after an issue with Dino Beganovic's car ahead, he was promoted back up to P3.
Unfortunately, as a result of the Safety Car from the incident with Beganovic and Oliver on lap 34, there was no time for Gabriele to challenge further up the podium.
Overall, an incredible drive for Gabriele, moving up seven places throughout a chaotic race, securing a podium finish for MP Motorsports.
Feature Race Results:
An incredible weekend for the team, and especially Gabriele, who secured podium finishes of P2 and P3 in both races of the weekend. Gabriele’s extraordinary drives propelled him and the team into P1 in both the driver and team standings. Although unlucky in the two races, Oliver exhibited great pace and drive, ready to push forward to the next race weekend at the Monte Carlo circuit in Monaco in June.
Driver Standings After Round 3:
Team Standings After Round 3:
