Returning for its second round of the 2026 season, Formula 3 got back on track at the legacy circuit in Monte Carlo at the Monaco Grand Prix. With MP Motorsport sitting in P8 in the championship, Monaco brought opportunities for more points to rise up the standings.
After a long 3-month break from racing, the MP Motorsport drivers were back on the track for a Free Practice session in the principality of Monaco.
Despite an unfortunate red flag early in the session, all the drivers set decent times, but there was room for more pace in the upcoming qualifying sessions.
Fastest of the MP Motorsport drivers in the session was Alessandro with a 1:26.549, setting the 11th fastest lap of the session.
Behind him, his teammate Mattia was in P18 with a 1:26.899 lap time, and Tuukka with a 1:27.023, coming home with P19 in the free practice session.
Free Practice Results:
Qualifying 1 for Formula 3 started in the cloudy afternoon in Monaco. Only Tuukka started in the first 15 drivers taking part in Group A for the first session. Tuukka started well, putting in good lap times throughout the session. With a tight battle with Ugo Ugochukwu and Noah Strømsted, Tuukka set a fastest time of 1:25.242 and came out of the session in P3.
Coming into Group B of the session, the time to beat was 1:24.612, set by Brando Badoer. The other two MP Motorsport drivers had the opportunity to set good lap times. Starting well, Alessandro was at the top half of the grid in the session, in which he finished P4 with a 1:25.028. Down the grid, Mattia logged his fastest of 1:25.919, where he put himself in P14 for the Group B session.
Qualifying Results:
The Sprint Race for Formula 3 started on a sunny morning in Monte Carlo. With two drivers within the top ten on the starting grid, MP Motorsport exhibited great promise for points. Starting in P5 was Alessandro, and Tuukka in P7, while Mattia started further down the grid in P27.
Off to a chaotic start, there were multiple driver contacts at the Nouvelle chicane, with Tuukka hitting Ernesto Rivera from the inside of the hairpin, developing damage to his front wing, and ending his race prematurely before he could complete lap 1.
Coming in and out of the Red Flag and safety car, Alessandro maintained his P5 position, while Mattia made an impressive climb up to P20.
Returning from the Red Flag, the race shifted to a timed race with a rolling start. On that return, a collision at the same hairpin occurred again between both Campos drivers and Freddie Slater. Mattia benefited from this incident by moving up to P17.
With a chaotic race consisting of two red flags, Alessandro crossed the finish line in his P5 qualifying position and was promoted to P4 after post-race penalties. Mattia made up an impressive ten places to cross the finish line in P17, and alongside his teammate was also promoted to P11 due to post-race penalties.
Sprint Race Results:
The second race of the weekend for Formula 3 in Monaco started with Alessandro in P6, Tuukka in P11, and Mattia further back in P26.
On the first launch, both Tuukka and Mattia were able to make up places, with Tuukka up to P10 and Mattia up to P25. Unfortunately, Alessandro lost out on his position on the launch, falling back to P7.
A stroke of bad luck occurred on lap 2 when Tuukka was pushed into the barriers on T6, where he was forced to retire from the race – bringing out a safety car that persisted until lap 4.
On the launch after the safety car, Mattia was able to propel up the grid, rising from P25 to P22.
With an incident further ahead, causing Nicola Lacorte to drop out, Mattia was promoted to P20, which he maintained to the finish line, and after the race was promoted to P19 due to other driver penalties.
Alessandro, although attempting to chase down Bruno Del Pino, ended up finishing in P7 in a solid top ten finish to the final race of the weekend.
Feature Race Results:
The team had a solid weekend with room for improvement in round 3. Alessandro scored points for both races, and Mattia scored a point in the first race. In an unfortunate weekend which consisted of two DNFs for Tuukka, he exhibited significant pace while on track, displaying promise to improve performance coming into the following weekend of racing at the Barcelona circuit. Monaco overall brought MP Motorsport up to P6 in the overall teams championship, a good restart to racing in Formula 3.
Driver Standings After Round 2:
Team Standings After Round 2:
