Aussie Watch: Doohan's title tilt over, Mansell banks more points

Jack Doohan's FIA Formula 2® title hopes are over, the Australian finishing an unlucky sixth in Sunday's Feature race at the Italian Grand Prix after rolling the dice with an alternative tyre strategy to keep his championship chances alive.

Doohan's outside shot of a tilt at the title, which came alive after a slow start to the season with victories in the Feature races in Hungary and Belgium either side of the mid-season break, got a lot harder after a chaotic qualifying session at Monza on Friday, where driver after driver had their laps compromised by trying to gain a slipstream from a rival down Monza's signature start-finish straight.

Doohan was one of several drivers to end up qualifying in a position that didn't reflect their pace, ending up 14th on the grid and with nothing to lose.

The Invicta Virtuosi Racing driver was one of three cars to start Sunday's 30-lap Feature on the non-preferred tyre medium-compound tyre, hoping for a safety car at the right time in order to pit with the field neutralised to take the faster supersoft Pirelli tyres to leapfrog opponents to get back into contention.

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Doohan, along with Jehan Daruvala (MP Motorsport) and Ayumu Iwasa (DAMS), started the race on mediums, and the second of five safety car interruptions on lap seven looked to have played into their hands when the rest of the field pitted, Doohan finding himself in second place.

A stop-start race of accidents saw Doohan pit with eight laps to go after a safety car caused by an incident for Campos Racing driver Kush Maini, the Australian having the final four laps to make the most of his supersoft tyres from 10th place when racing resumed on lap 27. Doohan tore through the pack, but the race was again neutralised for another safety car on the penultimate lap when Jak Crawford (Hitech) crashed, stopping his progress in seventh place.

Doohan gained a further position when Van Amersfoort Racing driver Richard Verschoor was issued a five-second time penalty after the race, but a third-place finish for championship leader Theo Pourchaire (ART) saw the Frenchman's lead over Doohan increase to 53 points with a maximum of 39 points available in the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi (November 24-26).

With two races remaining in 2023, the title fight comes down to a head-to-head battle between Pourchaire and Prema's Frederik Vesti, the Danish driver crashing out on the first lap on Sunday to hand Pourchaire a 25-point lead heading into Yas Marina.

Doohan, who finished sixth overall in his first full F2 season last year, sits fourth with two races remaining, and has a seven-point lead over fellow Alpine academy driver Victor Martins (ART), who failed to finish on Sunday after his DRS stuck open during the race.

In the FIA Formula 3® season finale in Italy, Christian Mansell picked up a pair of point-scoring finishes to wrap up a strong second half of the year that saw him end up in 12th place in the world championship standings.

The 18-year-old, driving for Campos Racing, finished seventh in Saturday's 18-lap Sprint, and held his nerve in a chaotic 21-lap Feature on Sunday that featured four safety car interruptions to finish eighth.

Mansell, after finishing just three races in the points in the first half of his rookie F3 campaign, scored in seven races in the run home of the 18-race season, including podiums for second in the Belgium Feature race and third in the Silverstone Sprint race to finish with 60 points.

Mansell's compatriot Tommy Smith (Van Amersfoort Racing) looked on course to equal his season-best showing of 12th in the Australia Feature race before a late pit stop (puncture) dropped him to 20th on Sunday.

The 21-year-old had an unfortunate weekend at Monza, being taken out by Kaylen Frederick (ART) at the first chicane on Lap 11 of Saturday's Sprint while running in 14th place, the American driver assessed a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision.

Smith finished the season in 28th place after failing to score across the 18 races.

The third Australian on the F3 grid this season, Mansell's teammate Hugh Barter, was replaced by Swiss driver Joshua Dufek at Campos Racing for the final round at Monza, Barter finishing his rookie F3 campaign with 14 points and three point-scoring results from 18 races to sit 19th in the final classification.

The F3 title was comfortably won by Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto (Trident), the 18-year-old who was victorious in the opening two feature races of the season in Bahrain and Melbourne to kick-start a consistent campaign where he had just one retirement and two finishes outside of the top 10.