The opening laps of the F3 Sprint Race in Monaco unfolded as expected—full of chaos. With pole sitter Giusti unable to get off the line as well as he would have liked, a gap quickly opened for Stenshorne. He capitalised on this opportunity and took the lead early in the race. By the end of the first lap, five cars had already retired, which naturally brought out a lengthy Safety Car period. Consequently, Stenshorne lost around eight laps of racing time, leaving him less time to consolidate his lead. On top of this, he faced a Safety Car restart.
Despite these challenges, Stenshorne held onto the lead and crossed the finish line first, securing his first win since Melbourne 2024. The Norwegian driver reflected on the positive feeling of victory and how qualifying traffic had put him at a disadvantage.
“It feels good. Yeah, not the optimal call yesterday, a bit of traffic, but ultimately, that’s what put us in the position to have the win today.”
Overall, he views the victory in Monaco as a significant achievement, though he remains somewhat cautious about it.
“So anyway, I think it’s a good result and it’s really nice to do it here.”
The honour of winning in Monaco
Reflecting further on his Sprint Race victory, Stenshorne described the special nature of winning in Monaco. The streets of Monte Carlo remain unforgiving, where even a small mistake can ruin a driver’s race. This, combined with the prestige of Monaco itself, makes winning here particularly special.
“Yeah, just like Laurens said, of course it’s a really nice race to win,” he said.
He acknowledges that while winning in Monaco earns drivers more respect within the paddock, a Feature Race win commands greater prestige than a Sprint Race victory. Regardless, winning here remains a dream for many drivers.
“But maybe you earn some more respect if you win the feature race, the sprint race, It’s a bit, not as big let’s say but anyway yeah it’s probably the nicest sprint race to win.”
Stenshorne will push hard in the Feature Race to score additional points.
“Yeah, I hope we can take some more. Yeah, it’s not going to be as easy as today, but we’ll try.”
Starts in Monaco are crucial
The importance of a strong start in Monaco cannot be overstated. Drivers who start outside the front row rarely win or finish second, unless they make a better start than those ahead, benefit from incidents, or attempt bold overtakes.
“Yeah, exactly. It’s only on the start really that they can make some moves. So I was really happy to get the position into T1 and from there on, I could just control.”
Because of this, practice starts become vital. However, replicating the exact grip and track conditions proves challenging during off-track preparation.
“Yeah, we try of course during testing and stuff we try to do some practice starts but it’s not so easy to do it off the track to be honest to have the right grip and everything so it’s not really something that we have practiced off track but yeah we have been struggling a bit with it to be honest with the new procedures and stuff but luckily we got it right today.”
A confidence boost for performance
Hitech TGR endured a difficult start to the season, showing promise in Melbourne before performance dipped in Bahrain. Likewise, Stenshorne’s early 2025 results were not ideal, but the Monaco Sprint Race win has delivered a welcome boost to his confidence.
“Yeah it’s a nice little confidence boost. It’s not been the start of the season that we fully wanted. We’ve been struggling a bit overall as a team but we’re still working really hard and hoping to come back even stronger in Barcelona.”
He openly admits both he and the team have struggled but are working hard to improve the car and his own competitiveness to challenge for better positions, especially on Sundays.
“Yeah, I think we started off not too bad in Melbourne but then coming to Bahrain we struggled quite a bit especially in the races and I was not of course the best run either so I think overall we’ve not been the strongest so far this season.”
“But we’re working quite well trying to improve the car and myself as well to to be more competitive to be fighting for better positions on Sunday.”
The balance of risk and caution
When asked about balancing the desire to push hard with the need for caution, Stenshorne agreed that it involves trial and error. He believes that the driver who takes the most risk without crashing tends to perform best.
“Yeah, like you guys said. But yeah, it’s all about finding the right balance to be honest between pushing and taking risk and ultimately the one who takes the most risk but doesn’t crash will be the fastest. So yeah, that’s it.”
Monaco remains notoriously difficult to overtake on, making Friday’s qualifying almost as important as the race itself. While F3 cars are smaller and narrower than F1 machines, which allows greater overtaking chances, risk-taking still plays a major role. Stenshorne has not yet watched the race but suspects that increased overtakes resulted from a combination of car size and drivers’ willingness to take risks.
“Well I haven’t really watched the race yet but of course it’s a bit easier to overtake in an F3 car than I guess in an F1 car that is quite a bit bigger and I guess also some people were that maybe wasn’t in the top 10 were fine with taking some extra risk but to be honest I haven’t watched the race back so I can’t comment too much.”
How the Sprint Race will influence the Feature Race
The Sprint Race demonstrated that Hitech TGR’s car has the pace to compete for wins. Stenshorne also managed to fend off his rivals and claim the fastest lap.
“Yeah I think we had quite good pace today. I think there was a lot of people who were trying to make a little gap in the build and then try to go for go for the fastest lap, me including, and then we got the fastest lap so I think overall we can be quite happy with our pace today.”
Starting 11th on the grid for the Feature Race, Stenshorne aims to crack the top ten immediately. After that, he plans to charge through the field and collect as many points as possible. Ultimately, the goal remains to bring home points regardless of quantity.
“Yeah obviously I’m starting right outside the top 10 so we’ll be trying to get inside the top 10 to get some points but after that I think it’s going to be really difficult.”
“But the goal is just to bring home a few points tomorrow as well.”
