After the pole, Frederik Vesti also took victory in the Monte Carlo Feature Race and the lead in the Drivers’ Championship. The Prema driver led the Sunday morning race without errors, thus obtaining his second success of the season.
On the other hand, Ayumu Iwasa took advantage of the reversed grid on Saturday, crossing the finish line first also thanks to the withdrawal of Isack Hadjar after a few laps while he was leading the race.
A weekend to forget for one of the protagonists of this championship start, Victor Martins, who in the Feature Race took a podium due to a penalty for not slowing down sufficiently under double yellow flags.
Ayumu Iwasa, DAMS
Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Sprint race: Hadjar rompe, Iwasa ringrazia
The sprint race ended with the victory of Ayumu Iwasa, in her third success of the season in Formula 2, in which she crossed the finish line 6.5 seconds ahead. A triumph that before the start seemed far from obvious, given that he was in second position behind the other Red Bull Driver Academy driver, Isack Hadjar, who had kept the lead after starting from pole thanks to the inversion of the grid.
However, the scenarios completely changed at the restart on lap six, followed by the entry of the Safety Car due to multiple contact with several drivers forced to retire. Trident driver Clement Novalak made contact with Kush Maini; Arthur Leclerc (started behind due to an accident during qualifying), Dennis Hauger, Roy Nissany and Ralph Boschung were also involved in the accident: Leclerc, Hauger and Novalak were forced to return to the pits, while the last two had to abandon the race . Novalak received a 10-second penalty for the incident, before receiving another five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
An episode that changed the cards on the table, seeing Hadjar suddenly slow down due to a technical problem that led him not only to lose the first position, but also to retire.
Podium, Aymu Iwasa, Jehan Daruvala, Jack Crawford
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Iwasa inherited the lead and began to build a significant gap of more than two seconds by lap ten, at least before the race was brought to a halt again past the twentieth lap. Not even a new intervention by the safety car affected the leadership of the Japanese driver, who then brought the car to the finish line once again imposing an unattainable pace even for the second classified Jehan Daruvala (MP Motorsport), behind by almost seven seconds the checkered flag.
Jak Crawford finished third for Hitech, taking his third podium of his rookie season in F2, withstanding pressure from Richard Verschoor late on, just half a second off the podium. Fifth place for Zane Maloney ahead of Jack Doohan, with the ART duo formed by Victor Martins and Theo Pourchiare completing the points zone in seventh and eighth position respectively.
Just outside the top 8 was Frederick Vesti, poleman in qualifying, while Enzo Fittipaldi passed Cordeel for tenth place eight laps from the end. Oliver Bearman, winner of the event in Baku last month, also withdrew.
Podium: second place Theo Pourchaire, ART Grand Prix, race winner Frederik Vesti, Prema Racing, third place Zane Maloney, Rodin Carlin
Photo by: Alfa Romeo
Feature race
After taking pole on Friday, clearly all eyes were on Frederick Vesti, who had a big chance of turning that first position into his second win of the season, repeating his success in Saudi Arabia.
A mission that the Dane accomplished admirably, resisting pressure from his opponents without making any mistakes from the first to the last pass. The Prema Racing driver, in his second season in F2, took a victory that was never really in question, also taking advantage of a red flag displayed during the twenty-third round.
In fact, the race was suspended for about twenty minutes due to the necessary cleaning operations to remove Doohan’s burning car, which had come into contact with the wall on the climb towards Massenet due to the front wing being damaged in precedence. Shortly before the red flag was displayed, however, the race director had opted for the Safety Car to enter, allowing Vesti to stop and make a pit stop.
After the restart, the Prema driver crossed the finish line 2.5 seconds ahead of second-placed Theo Pourchaire, who did not fail to express a not exactly veiled criticism of his teammate, Victor Martins, guilty of having pushed him towards the starting wall.
Theo Pourchaire, ART Grand Prix
Photo by: Alfa Romeo
Rodin Carlin’s rookie, Zane Maloney, finished in third place, conquering his second podium of the season thanks also to the penalty inflicted on the ART Frenchman for not slowing down enough in an area where the double yellow flag was displayed.
The stewards severely punished the infraction by the ART driver, also because it jeopardized two marshals who were working on Doohan’s car: the Frenchman was then penalized with a drive through which put an end to his hopes of getting on the podium .
Fourth place for Richard Verschoor, exactly like in the sprint race, while Hauger finished fifth. Sixth position for Maini ahead of Stanek and Martins, eighth after the penalty. To close the points Jak Crawford and Ayumu Iwasa, who precedes a Bearman once again dry.
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