As More Female Racers by Thrustmaster headed to Monza for the third round of the series, it was Jean Alesi Esports Academy who had swung the championship pendulum in their favour last time out. With the positive momentum on their side and another pole position from Mia Rose, they were the favourites to take the checkered flag first to make it three wins on the bounce.

The Podium in Pro Class

Keeping up their 100% victory rate was Jean Alesi Esports Academy in the Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo. They led from start to finish, with no real challenges from behind. From the outset, Mia Rose, who took pole position for the third time, looked to be absolutely on it, as she pulled out a gap of over two seconds in just one lap whilst her rivals battled it out in her mirrors. 

Mia looked comfortable as ever out on track and as she handed over the car to teammate Aenore Rose, she equally had the pace over her fellow competitors. Despite a late-charging Thibaud Propst picking up his pace not far behind, it was too little too late, allowing Jean Alesi Esports Academy to take their third win of the series.

Monza brought us a new runner up in Pro class, in the form of the GTWR Female Racing 3 Lamborghini, with Sara Dove and Thibaud Propst at the helm. Going into this week’s race, they had a comfortable advantage behind them in the championship, so it was all eyes forwards to try and break their run of third place finishes and get one step higher on the podium. 

In that sense, their race was very successful, as Thibaud Propst put in a stunning performance to pass the Triple A Esports Ferrari and extend a gap of around seven seconds with little time left in the second half of the race. However, it was Sara Dove who was behind the wheel first. She also produced in a very respectable, but much quieter, first half of the race, teeing up Propst to hunt down the Ferrari ahead. After the race, Propst said he was “pretty happy overall with the stint I did, and the stint of Sara” as they now begin to close in on Triple A Esports in the championship.

Rounding out the podium in Pro Class was Triple A Esports (previously known as TheHungarians). Both Timea Bencsik and Adam Pinczes drove very well, as both drivers had relatively lonely races. 

Timea qualified strongly in second and kept her car in the same position for the entire first stint after fighting off Aloo Gobi in the Map1 Racing McLaren in the first few laps. Their second place seemed to be certain as Pinczes took over, but as the race came to a close, he was passed by the #177 Lamborghini as he seemed to lose pace, possibly due to tyre wear or more likely fuel issues. Although this put a dampener on their race, both drivers were clean and quick throughout, claiming another solid haul of points.

Pro-AM’s stars

As was last time out at Zandvoort and at Misano for the first round, Pro-AM threw up some surprise results and plenty of action. However, one thing remained constant: The class winner.

Taking another class win was Aloo Gobi and Jens Kaiser in the Map1 Racing McLaren – making it their third victory of the season and showing themselves to be the dominant team in Pro-AM. In qualifying it was really more of the same, as Gobi put herself in third overall, making her 1.4 seconds faster than her closest rival in class. 

As the lights went green, she challenged Timea Bencsik for second place overall for the majority of the first lap, until a series of minor mistakes saw her fall away and lose a couple of positions. However, this wasn’t such a large setback as you might think, as she fought to gain the lost time back. Kaiser, who took over at the halfway mark, went on to put in a clean stint to come home fourth overall and first in class by just over ten seconds.

Pro-AM’s runner up at Monza was the #95 BSKIT Motorsport MFR Nissan, who took their second P2 finish after a more difficult race last week. From the very outset of both of their stints, Jenny Camugli and Declan Bowler looked to have good pace, both overall and in class. After Camugli put their Nissan third in qualifying, the duo were already in a good position. In a post-race interview, Jenny said that she “mostly managed to stay out of trouble for the first laps”, which allowed her to gain a few spots and claim second in class, which she then cemented during her stint. When Bowler took over, he kept up a strong level of pace, as he eventually crossed the line to finish in second. As they look ahead to next week, Jenny exclaimed that “we’ll be ready to defend that P2 at Silverstone”, so expect a strong fight from the pairing.

Monza’s top performances

Monza saw many great drives from up and down MFR’s highly talented grid, however, there were a couple of teams who really stood out.

One of those teams who shone through the timing sheets was the Pineapple Pizza Bentley, in the hands of Sarah Johnson and Jyri Turkia. After starting down in twentieth place, the race was looking to be a write-off, however, in just fifteen minutes, Johnson had gained ten places and now sat right with her competitors. Navigating the first few laps is one of the most important skills in Sim Racing, and this further shows us that clean driving is always king. Yet, with forty-five minutes still on the clock, there was still a long way to go. By the time the pitstops had come around, Johnson had made her way up to seventh overall  – a stunning stint. In the second half, Turkia brought the car home to finish in an impressive fifth position.

Another of the best drives this week was from the Star Girl Racing Ferrari from Verena Mei and Gregor Schill. Star Girl Racing had a very strong showing this time around, as Mei qualified in ninth overall, her best of the season so far and then drove a very respectable stint to finish it in tenth overall. Gregor Schill was next in the car and put in another great charge to gain a couple of positions and secure third in class – a type of drive that is seeming to become stereotypical of him.

What to expect at Silverstone

Silverstone is another track that is very popular amongst drivers and almost always produces great racing whilst still being very challenging to those behind the wheel. The action will, as per usual, being streamed live on The Sim Grid’s YouTube channel, so make sure you keep up-to-date with all the latest action. Check out More Female Racers’ title sponsor Thrustmaster for all the best sim racing gear too.