Honda junior and Russian Time’s Tadasuke Makino claimed his maiden FIA Formula 2 Championship victory in the feature race at Monza.
The Japanese driver was one of the three along with MP Motorsport’s Ralph Boschung and Dorian Boccolacci to start the race on the medium compound while the rest of the grid started on the super soft tyres.
However, those tyres lasted only for five laps as Makino shot himself into the lead from 14th on Lap 6 with Boschung and Boccolacci behind him while the rest of the field decided to pit as early to change tyres.
Before that, Russian Time’s Artem Markelov led DAMS’ Alexander Albon at the start as pole-sitter ART Grand Prix’s George Russell lost out to be third with DAMS’s Nicholas Latifi in fourth from Trident’s Arjun Maini and Carlin’s Lando Norris.
The lead changed hands couple of times with Markelov staying ahead when the pit stop spree kicked in as Makino took the top spot from the MP Motorsport drivers. The Japanese led the way in front as his teammate was ahead of the pack after their pit stop.
The first from the Top 3 to pit was Boccolacci on Lap 19 with Boschung and Makino only pitting on Lap 27 with the later returning still in lead as Boschung joined in eighth. It was for Makino then to hang on to his lead from teammate Markelov.
The Japanese driver did enough to win the feature race by 1.7s in a Russian Time 1-2 to score not only his best F2 result but also his first-ever win in the category. Markelov settled for second with Albon completing the podium position.
It was a close fight for fourth as Russell had fellow British driver Norris on his tail since the pit stop. The two delivered a fine show with Norris overtaking Russell at Curva Grande but the Mercedes junior returning the favour a lap later to stay ahead of the McLaren reserve.
Norris’ tyres were done by the end as Latifi managed to pass the British driver to finish fifth ahead of Norris as his Carlin teammate Sergio Sette Camara fought his way up to seventh after he was forced to start from the pitlane.
The Brazilian dived into the pits after the formation lap and made up 13 places to seventh then – similar to Makino who also made up 13 places to his first win. Eighth place and a sprint race pole went to Charouz Racing System’s Antonio Fuoco.
The Italian passed Boschung in his home race in the end to take the position with Prema’s Nyck de Vries also very close behind the Swiss driver on the finish line but had to settle for 10th place to score the final point.
Position 11-17: Luca Ghiotto, Sean Gelael, Maximilian Gunther, Louis Deletraz, Nirei Fukuzumi, Alessio Lorandi and Roy Nissany. DNF: Jack Aitken, Boccolacci and Maini.
UPDATE: Following the post-race checks, Fuoco has been disqualified from the feature race on the grounds of technical infringement. It was found that Fuoco used a ‘non-compliant throttle map’ at the race start.
This is a breach of Technical Bulletin BT 18 00 in the FIA regulations. Prior to the DQ, Fuoco was also handed a five-second penalty for track limits. The DQ promotes Boschung to eighth and pole for the sprint race with de Vrieis finishing ninth and Ghiotto 10th.
Position 11-16: Sean Gelael, Maximilian Gunther, Louis Deletraz, Nirei Fukuzumi, Alessio Lorandi and Roy Nissany. DNF: Jack Aitken, Boccolacci and Maini. DQ: Fuoco.