Jehan Daruvala held his own to win feature F2 race at Monza, as Victor Martins wins F3 title after win for Zane Maloney.

F2:

Already at the formation lap, pole-sitter Jack Doohan complained of clutch issues with his Virtuosi Racing car as he bogged down at the start of the feature F2 race at Monza. Carlin’s Liam Lawson took the lead from MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich.

Behind them, Hitech GP’s Marcus Armstrong slotted in third from Trident’s Richard Verschoor as DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa was fifth from Hitech GP’s Juri Vips, Prema’s Jehan Daruvala, ART’s Frederik Vesti, Virtuosi’s Marino Sato and Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi in the Top 10.

VAR’s David Beckmann ran ninth but slow puncture forced him to pit allowing Fittipaldi in the Top 10. The race was neutralised after a four-car drama at Turn 1 when Campos’ Ralpha Boschung re-joined the track after going off at Turn 1.

As he re-joined, he touched with ART’s Theo Pouchaire to spin him around with the incident also involving Campos’ Olli Caldwell and DAMS’ Luca Ghiotto. The incident between Boschung and Pourchaire was put under investigation by the stewards.

There was another investigation involving Daruvala, Doohan and Carlin’s Logan Sargeant after the Australian touched the Indian and forced into retirement along with the American. Amid this melee, Lawson continued to lead from Drugovich and Armstrong.

Verschoor was fourth as Iwasa lost out to both Vips and Daruvala upon re-start to be fifth and sixth, as the race was again neutralised for an incident between VAR’s Beckmann and Trident’s Calan Williams. The Australian smashed into the barrier.

The race was eventually red-flagged as drivers on the soft tyres pitted just before it. Verschoor had the feature F2 race from Sato without having stopped. Daruvala was in the net lead in third after making his pit stop from Iwasa and Armstrong.

Vesti was sixth from MP Motorsport’s Clement Novalak, VAR’s Amaury Cordeel, Fittipaldi and Lawson in the Top 10. While Prema’s Dennis Hauger had to serve a drive-through penalty for pre-race infringement, Armstrong handed a 10s stop and go penalty for entering the pitlane wrongly.

The re-start worked well for Verschoor who led Sato and Daruvala, with Armstrong clearing Iwasa for fourth but the Kiwi pitted for his penalty as Vesti then passed the Japanese driver to be fourth. There was mayhem behind them with several jostling for positions.

It involved Vips tagging the back of Lawson at Turn 4 where the Kiwi was spun around. The Estonian was put under investigation where he was handed a 10s stop and go penalty for causing a collision. Lawson needed to stop to change the front wing as well.

Verschoor stretched his stint for long ahead of Daruvala and Vesti but he finally pitted on Lap 26 to hand over the feature F2 race lead to the Indian driver from the Danish driver. Iwasa moved up to third from Fittipaldi and Hauger.

Beckmann was sixth from Cordeel with Drugovich, Novalak and Verschoor rounding the Top 10. At the front, Daruvala held the lead well in the end to register a feature F2 race win at Monza from Vesti and Iwasa, who held off three cars for the final place on the podium.

Fittipaldi was fourth from Hauger and Beckmann, with Drugovich in seventh from Cordeel, Novalak and Verschoor in the Top 10.

UPDATE: “Ayumu Iwasa has been disqualified from the Formula 2 Feature Race in Monza after it was found that the DAMS car was not compliant with the Technical Regulations. Following post-race scrutineering, the Stewards ruled that the plank on the Japanese driver’s car was below the maximum thickness required by Article 4.2 of the Technical Regulations. As a result, Enzo Fittipaldi is promoted to the podium in third, whilst Jüri Vips moves up to claim the final points paying position in P10.

Furthermore, Ralph Boschung has received a three-place grid drop for the next race he participates in for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner and causing a collision. During the opening lap, the Campos Racing driver left the track at Turn 1 and cut behind the apex of the following corner. Whilst rejoining the track, he failed to stay out of the way of the cars already on track and as result, he collided with ART Grand Prix’s Théo Pourchaire. The Stewards determined that he was wholly responsible for the incident.

Elsewhere, race winner Daruvala was handed a reprimand for the Lap 1 incident with Doohan and Sargeant. “Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards determined that approaching Turn 4 on Lap 1, Car 2 was in front on the left side taking a line to possibly attack the car ahead,” said the stewards.

“Behind Car 2, Car 3 and Car 6 were side by side with Car 6 on the right hand track edge. Car 3 reported that he was aware that Car 6 was on his right and on the tracks edge. At the braking point to the turn Car 2 braked earlier than Car 3 and Car 6 as he was on the dirty part of the track. Car 3 and Car 6 being on the clean line and with a better angle of approach to the corner braked later than Car 2.

“Car 2 was aware of Car 3 on his right but he was not aware nor could he possibly see Car 6 on the outside of Car 3. Under braking Car 2 moved to close the outside gap to defend the position. The effect of this line in the braking area was to squeeze Car 3 to the outside where there was no space. Car 3 attempted to move but could not as he was sandwiched between Car 2 and Car 6. The cars collided and Car 3 and Car 6 retired.

“Taking into consideration that this occurred on lap 1, and also considering that Car 2 could not see Car 6 on the edge of the track, the stewards determined that given the mitigating circumstances a reprimand for Car 2 was all that was warranted.”

In a strange administrative error, the FIA apologised to Vips and Hitech GP for erroneously showing 10s stop and go penalty to the Estonian instead of a normal penalty. Since they already served it, there is no way they can take it back now.

“The Stewards examined video evidence. Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards determined that Car 8 was attempting a pass on the inside of Car 5 into Turn 4,” it said. “Car 5 appeared to give adequate room to Car 8. Car 8 locked his inside wheel under breaking and made contact with the rear wheel of Car 5 just after the apex causing a collision and Car 5 to spin. Car 8 is judged solely at fault for the incident and the standard penalty of 10 seconds applied.

“Due to an administrative error a 10 second stop and go penalty was shown on the timing screen from Race Control. The Team correctly served the erroneous penalty as posted before it could be corrected. There is no mechanism to fix this error and an apology is offered to the driver and team.”

F3:

Maloney had a good launch off the line and got alongside Alexander Smolyar into Turn 1 to take the lead on the inside. Victor Martins managed to clear Roman Stanek into the first corner after making use of the tow from those ahead. Arthur Leclerc ran out of room and had to run across the chicane at Turn 2 and it left him vulnerable to teammate Bearman. Into Turn 4 and the Briton got the job done for fifth around the outside.

A Safety Car was deployed on the opening lap after contact between Rafael Villagómez and David Vidales at the second Lesmo, with both ending up in the gravel and out of the race. After a brief spell with the race neutralised, the green flags were back out entering Lap 4 and race leader Maloney went halfway down the back straight into Parabolica.

It allowed Smolyar to stick right with him heading down the main straight and the MP Motorsport driver attempted a pass. He locked-up into Turn 1 and missed the corner, taking the lead in the process. Behind, Martins managed to jump Maloney coming out of the first chicane and the ART Grand Prix driver made the most of the opportunity, passing Smolyar for the lead into the Della Roggia chicane.

The PREMA Racing drivers weren’t taking things easy against one another. Leclerc managed to re-pass Bearman on the first lap back to racing using the exact move the Briton pulled on him at the start. On Lap 6, Bearman tried to slipstream his way back through. The pair missed the first corner, and the Monégasque held his teammate off to keep fifth.

With Martins in clear air, he began to build a gap to the rest as Maloney couldn’t get through on Smolyar. Out of the final corner and onto Lap 8, Maloney got the tow just right and made the move down the inside into Turn 1. He wasn’t done yet either. Coming into the second chicane, he immediately shaped up Martins and went to the outside for an attempted pass. Both missed the corner, continuing in the same order. The Bajan driver was back through before the end of the lap to retake the lead.

Leclerc looked to have lined up a great move on Stanek and Smolyar but contact in the braking zone forced the Monégasque to the escape road, bringing the Trident driver along with him. Both dropped down to seventh and eighth respectively. Bearman saw his chance and cleared Smolyar for third to set his sights on Maloney and Martins ahead.

Isack Hadjar wasn’t having a good Feature Race and found himself well out of contention. He was relegated to 14th by Reece Ushijima on Lap 11 into Turn 1. Having fought his way back into the top three, Bearman looked to be quicker than those ahead and on Lap 12, was able to use the DRS tow into the first corner to take second from the Championship leader.

Onto Lap 14 and Bearman was right in the slipstream of Maloney but not quite close enough to get through for the lead. One lap later and he was just 0.3s behind across the line, close enough to try the outside move on Maloney into the first corner. A lock-up for the Trident meant the two made contact into Turn 1 with Bearman running over the chicane. He was forced to hand the lead back which allowed Martins back into the lead battle in the process.

The Safety Car was back out on Lap 16 after Kush Maini and Brad Benavides crashed out of the second Lesmo. The debris and barrier repairs required meant the Red Flag was thrown with five laps of the 2022 season to go.

As things stood at the Red Flag, Martins held the lead of the Championship with 142 points in the live standings with Maloney second on 134 and Bearman third on 132. As the drivers sat in the pit lane, it was confirmed that the race would not restart while Martins was simultaneously handed a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.

The classification was taken from countback which meant with Martins’ time penalty applied, and a further penalty for track limits violation for William Alatalo taken into account, the Frenchman finished P4. The 12 points for fourth ensured he had 139 points total, enough to seal the Drivers’ Championship.

Zane Maloney’s win moved him up to second in the Standings on 134 points while Bearman’s P2 finish left him third in the Championship on 132. Crawford was promoted up to third to cap off PREMA’s Teams’ title-winning effort.

 

More to come

 

 

Here’s how F2 and F3 sprint race panned out

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