Monza

A clear hand at the front

Autodromo Nazionale Monza gave the Championship its first scored race in the manner most suited to its long straights and sweeping bends: at a very high average speed, and with the field constantly reshaping itself behind one settled figure. Florian Masse was that figure. The Frenchman led every lap of the 42-lap contest in the Honda RA300 and reached the flag as a thoroughly deserving winner.

There was no need for ornament in Masse's drive. He set the fastest lap, a 1:26.553, and his authority at the head of the race never weakened in the recorded order. Yet it was not a lonely technical procession. FMG's BRM P83 was close enough in outright pace to be only 0.170 seconds slower on the fastest lap, while much of the race behind the Honda was animated by changing combinations of cars and drivers.

The old road circuit in the Royal Park, with its long straights, broad curves and the accelerating Parabolica, allowed the field to remain elastic. Masse alone gave it a fixed point.

FMG emerges from the traffic

FMG's second place was built through a long contest with Flashor. After an incident on the second lap had taken Flashor from second to 12th, the Lotus driver worked back into contention and, from lap nine through lap 27, repeatedly ran close to the BRM.

Their order changed more than once. Flashor moved ahead by lap nine, FMG reclaimed the advantage two laps later, and Flashor was again in front at the end of lap 12. The decisive alteration came later, when FMG moved ahead before lap 28 and retained the upper hand to secure second place.

Flashor's recovery nevertheless carried him to ninth, an outcome which says much for the pace available once the early disruption had been absorbed. For FMG, the result was the more important one: the BRM reached the flag second, 2.328 seconds ahead of the Eagle T1G of meisterJaeger.

The Eagles' changing argument

The fight immediately behind FMG had its own long prelude. meisterJaeger and Elia Porcu ran within two seconds of one another for 20 consecutive laps from the early part of the race, their Eagle T1Gs offering little between them in the running order.

Porcu moved ahead on lap 15, but meisterJaeger regained the place by lap 22. That proved the important reversal. The German held third to the finish, with the Italian fourth, and the two Eagles thereby gave the podium a distinctly different character from Masse's measured run at the front.

There were further close clusters behind them as the race developed. Between laps seven and 16, Rolf Biber, Kasperi Sirén, Stefano Bucci, Alex Senna and Willphaizer formed a compact group, never spread by more than five seconds. It was the kind of changing traffic that Monza's high-speed rhythm can produce, but it did not disturb the leading Honda.

A Ferrari return

One of the more substantial recoveries belonged to gilvil77. An incident-filled second lap left the Ferrari 312 down in 22nd place, but the Italian steadily returned through the order to take sixth at the end of the 42 laps.

That rise was particularly notable amid a field in which several battles ran at once. Alex Senna and Willphaizer exchanged the advantage repeatedly in the opening half, while pitman and Aitor Montero conducted an equally changeable argument. The latter pair traded places on successive early laps and remained close through lap 18, before pitman eventually reached the flag 15th and Montero 13th.

Such contests supplied the movement which the leading contest lacked. Masse did not need to fight for his position, but the race around him was rarely still.

An opening verdict

Masse's victory places him at the head of the Championship after its first scored race. It was an opening result of unusual completeness: pole position is not part of the record here, but command of every racing lap certainly is, and the fastest lap reinforced the impression.

FMG and meisterJaeger leave Monza with the first podium places of the campaign, while Porcu and gilvil77 showed enough to ensure that the Honda's success will not be treated as a final verdict on the season.