Pedro Piquet denied Giuliano Alesi in a tense battle during GP3’s Monza sprint race to claim his second victory of the 2018 season.

Piquet claimed the lead from polesitter Richard Verschoor at the start before Alesi found his way to second, sparking a battle which would dominate the race.

The son of Formula 1 champion Nelson Sr took advantage from Alesi losing momentum from a front-right lock-up at the left-right Turn 1 chicane by passing his Trident team-mate at the next corner.

Alesi’s best opportunity to win came as he passed PIquet around the outside of Parabolica before Piquet went sideby-side approaching the line, having to move behind following the start of a safety-car period.

Piquet held on to win the 18-lap contest by 0.4 seconds, while Ferrari academy racer Alesi finished 0.8s ahead of Scuderia colleague Callum Ilott.

Ilott passed drivers’ championship rival Anthoine Hubert to cut his deficit to 27 points and deny Hubert a sixth consecutive podium.

Force India F1 tester Nikita Mazepin ended in fifth above Jake Hughes and David Beckmann.

Sauber F1 test driver Tatiana Calderon claimed the final point in eighth.

Leonardo Pulcini and Simo Laaksonen completed the top 10 above Verschoor.

An incident between Juan Manuel Correa and Gabriel Aubry sparked the safety-car period as Correa’s Trident-Dallara swerved across the left side of the track into Aubry’s Arden-run machine.

Both cars were left without a rear wing and one damaged front wheel and retired from the race.