Zane Maloney wins in Monaco

Zane Maloney has done it!

The 17-year-old Barbadian driver stood on the top step of the podium, took off his hat and glanced behind him to see the Barbados flag displayed high in the middle.

He was the winner in Monaco, having captured pole position two days before  leading from start to finish and stood proudly as the Barbados anthem was played around the Road Circuit in Monaco moments before the F1 Grand Prix race.

Maloney was competing in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine Round 3, race 2 in Monaco yesterday and showed nerves of steel as Saturday’s winner Isack Hadjar could constantly be seen in the rearview mirror.

Monaco’s road circuit is always difficult to pass and it is also easy to make a mistake that takes you out of the race completely with the walls close to the wheels at almost every turn on the narrow streets.

The tight spacing was evident from the onset as the race had to be red flagged moments after it got going due to a pile up which saw one of the competitor’s car being flipped.

It took over 10 minutes to clear the track and racing got going again for the 30-minute race plus one lap.

Maloney was never allowed to back off as Hadjar was always close behind but not close enough to attempt a move.

With 16 minutes to go there was another safety car after Maloney had set the fastest time in response to the pressure from Hadjar in second place.

It took five minutes for the track to be cleared this time and Maloney got a great restart pulling away and giving himself an immediate gap ahead of second place.

Another yellow flag came with 10 minutes left and then the safety car came out with under eight minutes to go.

This meant whenever the track was clear it would be an all out sprint to the end of the race.

The safety ended with four minutes left in the race and sprint began.

Once again Maloney had an excellent restart and completed the race without giving second place Hadjar any opportunity to pass or even attempt a pass during the race.

They now head to the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet in France for the fourth round slated for next weekend.