It was a chaotic race at the legendary high-speed track in Monza, but at the end it was Racing Engineering’s Alexander Rossi who crossed the finish line in first place ahead of championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne. Mitch Evans, who had qualified in third place but started from 23rd place after a penalty, was classified in third place.
The first half of the race was a turbulent one. DAMS man French Gasly had a quick getaway from pole position, but behind him all hell broke lose soon afterward. Gasly’s team-mate Alex Lynn had a lightning start and sliced past Stoffel Vandoorne. A battle between the two started, and behind the duo Sergey Sirotkin was ready and waiting to pounce: In lap three, the Russian had closed up to the battling pair and was able to attack and overtake Vandoorne, with the Campos Racing duo Arthur Pic and Rio Haryanto putting Vandoorne under pressure from behind immediately.
One lap later, the safety car ended the battle after rookie Meinhart van Buuren had spun off the track and hit the barriers. At the restart in lap six, Gasly made a quick getaway and Lynn and Sirotkin kept squabbling over second place behind him. Vandoorne dashed into the pits to make an early pit stop. Gasly pitted three laps later from the lead; however, an issue during the stop saw the Frenchman emerge slowly from the pits behind Vandoorne. Lynn and Sirotkin followed suit one lap later, and while Sirotkin was able to jump Vandoorne, Lynn was less lucky: Another problem hampered the DAMS mechanics so that the Brit left the pits behind Vandoorne.
Gasly’s problems had a lasting effect: The French rookie dropped down the order quickly and he was forced to return to the pits where he was eventually forced to retire. Teammate Alex Lynn made it an entirely dark day for DAMS: While Sirotkin and Vandoorne had battled on track, the Brit had closed in on them. However, when he tried to attack Vandoorne, he out-braked himself in the Variante del Rettifilo hitting Sirotkin. Both managed to limp back to the pit lane, where they eventually retired.
Vandoorne was now leading the drivers who had already done their mandatory pit stop. While he seemed to have a safe lead at first, it did not take long until another challenger appeared in his mirrors: Alexander Rossi. The American attacked immediately, and the championship rivals kept trading positions back and forth during the second half of the race until Rossi gained the upper hand and eventually claimed the race lead, holding on to it with Vandoorne in tow until the finish line for his second consecutive race win.
Norman Nato saw the checkered flag in third place; however, the Frenchman had received a five-second penalty late in the race for speeding in the pit lane so that it was Mitch Evans who was classified in third place ahead of Richie Stanaway and Artem Markelov. Arthur Pic finished the race in seventh place ahead of Jordan King, who claimed the reverse grid pole position for tomorrow’s sprint race. Robert Visoiu and Rene Binder complete the top ten.
