Christian Mansell has walked away from a massive rollover in the penultimate round of the 2022 Euroformula Open Championship at Monza.
After finishing third in Race 1, the Australian passed Francesco Simonazzi for second early in Race 2.
The Motopark Academy driver then set about chasing down team-mate Josh Mason, making several attempts for the lead, with his effort on Lap 6 resulting in him going across the chicane, losing position to Vlad Lomko.
While trying to re-gain his position from Lomko, Mansell was forced to hold off a hard-charging Simonazzi.
During the duel, Simonazzi made a lunge on the approach to Ascari, resulting in the pair making contact, with Mansell’s Dallara F320 Spiess flipping and landing upside down before sliding for a few more metres until it came to a stop in the gravel trap.
The race was red-flagged as a result of the incident.
Fortunately, the 17-year-old emerged from the incident unscathed.
“The good news is that I’m perfectly ok,” Mansell posted to social media.
“We’re built tough us Aussies.
“Sucks not to get a result still but these things happen.
“The halo sure helped us out today, so huge thank you to the FIA, the marshals for their help, and my team for an awesome job getting us back out.”
Shortly after the restart, the race was red-flagged once again, after Simonazzi made contact with Team Motopark driver Frederick Lubin.
In addition to his Euroformula Open Championship campaign, Mansell has quickly set about building on his racing experience this year, with two outings in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.
He first sampled the Formula 1 feeder series at the Hungaroring in July, before taking to Spa-Francorchamps at the end of August.
Mansell is currently third in the championship standings on 342 points.
The final round of the Euroformula Open Championship will take place at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain from October 15-16.
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