Trident driver Leonardo Fornaroli admitted to feeling “destroyed” after clinching the Formula 3 title in dramatic fashion at the final corner of a rollercoaster season finale at Monza.
Having started from pole position while holding a five-point lead over rival Gabriele Mini (Prema), the cards had been dealt in Fornaroli’s favour. But a chaotic race required a last lap pass for third on ART's Christian Mansell to snatch the crown away from Mini, who finished second to winner Sami Meguetounif.
“I was destroyed after the race,” said Fornaroli, who became the first driver to take the title without winning a race.
“Even if I didn’t take the win, having started from pole, this time it’s okay. I will try to take it in the future.”
Fornaroli had lost the lead in the opening exchanges to Alex Dunne (MP Motorsport), before a failed pass on the Irishman sent him across the Ascari gravel and down to fifth.
Explaining the waves of emotion, he said: “Before that corner, I said ‘OK, this is perfect now. I’m, going to take Alex on the next lap with DRS.’ But then I saw that Ascari was full of dust.
“I wasn’t expecting the corner to be so slippery so I just did a normal line and completely lost the rear.
“Then I lost three positions, including one on Gabi and I said, ‘No, no, no. It cannot be possible.’ Everything was going perfectly and I completely messed up.”
But worse was to come, as a lockup at the Rettifilo chicane with only a handful of laps remaining forced him to navigate the final tours while suffering from significant flat spots.
“I was told 'this is still good, to try to concentrate and to overtake them back', so I did,” he added.
“But I think I pushed too much on tyres and, on overtaking into the chicane, I went into the middle of the track. It was very bumpy and I completely locked up the tyres, destroying the fronts.
“Then, with three laps to go and I saw Gabi [Mini] and him [Mansell] behind me and they were faster than me, I said, ‘Oh my God’, because I was also without DRS.
“So I decided to let them by and see what I could do now with the DRS.
“I saw that they were faster than me and in that moment, I said to my engineer, ‘Am I still champion?’ and he replied, ‘No, you have to overtake the car in front of you’.
“My heart rate went very high in the last two laps! I knew I had only one lap to take the title back.
“I tried in the second chicane and in Ascari, but it wasn’t enough. I mean, Ascari, I also didn’t try because I was too far away.
“Going into the last corner, I knew it was the last chance, so I went in and managed to take the title back and then the pressure from the last two laps went completely down.”
