In the race to the finish line of the 2026 Formula 3 season, the MP Motorsport team returned from the summer break to compete in the penultimate round at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
After a solid weekend of performance in Budapest back in July, prospects were bright, with Tuukka having taken his first pole position in Formula 3, and Mattia and Tuukka making significant point progress up the drivers' championship leaderboard.
The weekend in Monza presented great potential to continue the upward momentum to grasp as many points as possible before the season concludes.
The MP Motorsport team started the weekend in Monza well, with Friday's Free Practice session seeing a dominant pace for the team, with an MP Motorsport 1-2-3 in the session.
Alessandro came out of Free Practice fastest of the lot with a time of 1:37.445 produced over 19 laps of the Monza circuit, setting a great starting tone for his weekend ahead.
Tuukka laid down the first lap of the session and showed great pace from the beginning, going back and forth with his teammates for the fastest time of the session. Overall, he completed 20 laps and came out P2 behind Alessandro with a fastest time of 1:37.677.
Only a couple of tenths off Tuukka, Mattia completed 19 laps of the circuit, and after a session of back-and-forth fastest times amongst the MP Motorsport drivers, came out P3 with a fastest time of 1:37.865.
Free Practice Results:
Later in the day on Friday at Monza, the qualifying session for Formula 3 took place. Due to the nature of the track and its conditions, to allow drivers the best chance for the session to avoid becoming clustered in attempted tows, Qualifying was divided into two groups, A and B, which was determined by even and odd driver numbers.
For MP Motorsport, Tuukka was the sole driver in the first ten-minute Group A session. Tuukka was first on track, and on everyone's first flying lap set a purple middle sector and ended up P5. With the limited time, only a few drivers were allowed a second flying lap – Tuukka included. Unfortunately, he was unable to improve and had his middle purple sector undone, so he was pushed to qualify P6 of the first group with a time of 1:38.458.
Mattia and Alessandro competed in the final Group B session. This second group's session went differently, with most drivers in pursuit of a tow behind another driver early on; this resulted in the teams playing the waiting game, which persisted until there were less than three minutes of the session remaining. As a result, there was practically no time for mistakes and only one flying lap available. In the end, Alessandro was fast, but with others behind him receiving beneficial tow, he was less fortunate and ended up qualifying P6 with a time of 1:38.626, while Mattia followed suit behind him to place P5 with a close time to his teammate of 1:38.628.
Qualifying Results:
The Sprint race on Saturday went ahead, with Tuukka starting P3, Alessandro in P5, and Mattia in P7.
Alessandro's race started well after he climbed up to P4 on the initial launch. Later on lap 3, Alessandro made an outstanding overtake and climbed from P4 to P2, and after an incident with Barrichello and Badoer, he was propelled up to P1. The incident resulted in a safety car, which remained until the end of lap 6. Alessandro was in charge of the restart and propelled himself early and cleared over three car lengths to Clerot in P2 almost immediately.
Unfortunately, after a virtual safety car that persisted from lap 8 to 9, Alessandro had a less-than-desired restart and lost P1 to Clerot and, not long after, fell to P3 behind Kato as well. This was short-lived, as after Clerot's car experienced a mechanical issue on lap 10, Alessandro was up to P1 after shooting past Kato and was at the front of the pack by the time the safety car was out.
Alessandro on lap 13 controlled another restart with another early launch, and held onto his position. Unfortunately, on lap 15, Kato was able to snatch the lead from Alessandro, and on the following lap, after a battle with Slater, Alessandro dropped further down to P4.
Battles continued on the final few laps of the race, where Alessandro stayed in contention for the podium. At the start of the final lap, he overtook all the way around the outside of the pack, and was momentarily up to P2. He ran a little wide and fell to P3 behind Slater and soon after P4, and then finished in P5 after being overtaken by Yamakoshi and David in the final sector of the race.
Mattia's race started poorly after he ran wide on the restart and fell to P8 initially, and then P10 by the start of lap 2. Although after DRS was enabled, Mattia had begun his climb back up the grid after overtaking Le for P9 and began setting purple sectors across the track.
On lap 3, after the Barrichello and Badoer incident, Mattia was promoted to P7 as a result and on the restart on lap 7 made up a further position to P6, before producing a great overtake on Yamakoshi, where he took P5. After a great lap of progress, Mattia unfortunately broke late and locked up in the closing sector of the lap and went into the run-off area, where he dropped to P8.
Following Clerot's DNF on lap 10, Mattia was promoted to P6. In the final laps, Mattia battled with David, where he took P5 on lap 16, but lost the position on the following lap, falling back to P6, which is where he remained until the flags.
Tuukka was set for a great sprint race with his front-row start, which was unfortunately offset by an incident outside of his control. On the launch at the start, Tuukka was immediately on the back of the two Rodin drivers ahead of him, continuing to challenge for their positions across lap 2. It was not until lap 3 that Tuukka was able to charge through and overtake Badoer around the inside and snatch up P2.
Unfortunately, in a stroke of bad luck, Tuukka got caught in the crossfire of the incident between Barrichello and Badoer and ended up in the runoff area; this incident caused Tuukka to develop a puncture, which pushed him down to the back of the grid in P29.
He remained on track for the bulk of the race and made up positions to P23. Unfortunately, Tuukka developed a second puncture from track debris and was forced to DNF from the race on lap 15 due to the punctures.
With a race of highs and lows, the pace that all the drivers had, especially Alessandro and Tuukka, displayed promise for the feature race on Sunday.
Sprint Race Results:
The feature race on early Sunday morning wrapped up racing in Monza for the second-to-last round of the 2026 Formula 3 season.
For the starting grid for MP Motorsport, Alessandro started in P7, with Tuukka in P8, and Mattia in P12.
Tuukka had a phenomenal redemption race after the tragic premature end to his sprint race on Saturday. To start the feature race, Tuukka launched ahead of his teammate and shot into P6. On the following lap, the two teammates battled it out, with Alessandro snatching up P6, with Tuukka falling back to P7. A safety car was called out for McLaughlin on lap 4 and on the lap 5 restart, Clerot got ahead of Tuukka and pushed him back to P8. Later on in the lap, Barrichello locked up on the Roggia Chicane, and Tuukka narrowly avoided involvement in the incident and maintained his position.
A couple of laps later, Tuukka was able to reclaim his P7 position from Clerot, and after Rivera, up ahead, developed damage and fell down the order, Tuukka was promoted to P6. On the following lap, Tuukka and Alessandro began battling for P5, with Tuukka eventually coming out victorious and snatching the position on lap 8.
Tuukka's upward momentum persisted, as on lap 9 he overtook Slater to take P4. Continuing, on lap 10 Tuukka attempted to overtake around the inside for a provisional podium spot, but unfortunately was unable to hold onto the position and fell back to P4. His luck picked up almost immediately, as while observing a battle ahead between Le and Kato, Tuukka on lap 11 took the opportunity and charged up to P2.
Tuukka had incredible pace and the potential to take the lead, but was unable to take the top step of the podium and finished the race in P2.
Alessandro in the feature race had great pace that was unfortunately offset by an issue outside of his control. At the race start, Alessandro maintained his grid position and ended up battling with his teammate on the second lap to snatch up P6 early on in the race. Alessandro had incredible pace and throughout the race was setting purple sector times. On lap seven, Tuukka and Alessandro battled again, and Alessandro lost the position. Alessandro stayed in the fight and battled with Slater for P5.
Unfortunately, on lap 10, Alessandro fell back to P6 but was swiftly back up to P5 on the following lap. On lap 13, Alessandro dipped into the gravel, which slowed him down. David attempted an overtake, but Alessandro maintained his position and continued racing.
Around lap 17 an issue was detected with Alessandro's car, as his rain light was seen dangling from the rear as a result of unfortunate earlier contact with a rival misjudging their braking point, and he was forced to DNF from the race on lap 21, which brought his great race to a premature end.
Finally, Mattia had a solid race which was offset by a penalty. On the launch at the start, Mattia lost a position and fell to P13, although at the start of the second lap he overtook Yamakoshi for P12 and, before the end of the lap, made up a further position to P11. Unfortunately, on lap 3 Mattia lost his progress and fell back to P13. However, after the end of the safety car on lap 5, he climbed back to P11 by the end of the lap.
As racing continued by lap 9, Mattia had rocketed up into the top ten to sit in P9, which he held until Mattia fell a couple of places to P12 on lap 10, after getting caught up in the traffic, misjudged the braking point at turn four and collided with Clerot, which caused him to spin out. On lap 12, Slater developed damage on his car and began a descent down the leaderboard; this promoted Mattia to P11. Continuing, on the following lap, Mattia made a move on Badoer to take P10. Ugochukwu fell down the order on lap 19, which promoted Mattia to P9 and after Alessandro DNFed, a further promotion to P8.
On the final lap, Mattia was overtaken by Ugochukwu and crossed the finish line in P9, but due to a penalty for his involvement in the collision earlier with Clerot, he ended in P20.
Feature Race Results:
After incredible pace executed in the opening Free Practice and tricky situations surrounding qualifying, the MP Motorsport team in Formula 3 experienced a weekend of success and unfortunate circumstances.
A highlight of the weekend for all the drivers was the incredible pace evident from the first time they hit the track, with an all-MP Motorsport 1-2-3 in free practice.
Tuukka, although missing out on a better position in qualifying due to the competitive nature of the session, followed by a tragic, unavoidable puncture to his tyre in the sprint race, was able to turn his weekend around in the feature race to come out P2, only narrowly missing out on the podium
Alessandro had phenomenal pace all weekend after, dominating Free Practice and scoring the highest of his teammates in the sprint. He was set up for a strong weekend with a P5 finish in the sprint. In the feature race, he had great pace, which was unfortunately offset by an out-of-his-control issue with the car. Overall, his great pace throughout the weekend was a highlight.
Mattia had a solid weekend with great performance in Free Practice and Qualifying, as well as a top ten finish in the sprint race. Like his teammates, he had great pace in the Feature Race but unfortunately was pushed out of the points due to a penalty.
Overall, the team had a solid weekend at the 2026 Formula 3 race at Monza. With only one race weekend remaining, set only a week away in Madrid at the new Madring, the MP Motorsport team aims to continue the ongoing positive progress developed at the rear end of the season to end 2026 on a high.
Driver Standings After Round 2:
Team Standings:
