Second spot for Hunter driver Christian Mansell in F3 feature

The 18-year-old will head to Monza, Italy, for the last round in September (1-3) fresh from placing second behind Taylor Barnard in Sunday's feature race at Spa-Francorchamps.

He picked up 18 points and now sits 12^th overall on the F3 leaderboard, having started the most recent contest in 22^nd on the grid.

"My hopes for Monza are pole, pole, win, win," Mansell told F3 media.

"No I think in all seriousness just try and maximise the weekend.

"It's the last one and important to go out on a high.

"It's always good going into next year, you always perform better on momentum and if I'm honest momentum is key.

"I think for Taylor [Barnard] when he goes into Monza, he is going to have an extra bit of confidence.

"When I go I'm going to have more confidence, we are all built up on momentum, that's how this sport works.

"If you have a smile it's worth four tenths, easily."

Tyre selection was a key factor behind Mansell improving 20 spots over 13 laps, particularly an eventful opener.

"To be honest we opted for the alternate strategy because when you start that far back. .. well I thought I had nothing to lose for a little bit," he said.

"I saw a lot of people sort of opted for slicks, some opted for wet, but I was going to go for the wet one because I knew it would be faster in the beginning and I tried to see where we were at in the latter stage of the race.

"Safety Car benefited massively. I think it was the right call. I think I knew what I was going to do straight away.

"But when I saw people in front of me on slicks I knew they were vulnerable and yeah it was a very big confidence boost because I knew I was faster."

Mansell has 52 points, nine shy of the top 10.

He collected a two-race combined 18 points from the one weekend in Silverstone (UK) earlier in July.

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