Nobuharu Matsuhita took his first win of the season at Monaco with a huge gap ahead of Marvin Kirchhofer and Raffaele Marciello.
Nobuharu Matsushita started this race on pole position ahead of Marvin Kirchhofer while Antonio Giovinazzi stalled on the grid before the formation lap. He eventually rejoined the pits and managed to start the race. The start happened quietly with no contact at Sainte Dévote. Matsushita kept his first place despite an average start compared to Kirchhofer’s. The Japanese driver created a gap straight away ahead of the German, Rafaelle Marciello and Mitch Evans following. Further back in the field, Oliver Rowland and Artem Markelov fought hard for the seventh place, Arthur Pic not far behind.
On the fourth lap, Philo Paz Armand stopped his car at Loews hairpin, blocked by Jordan King when he tried to overtake him. Rowland caught up Norman Nato and announced a battle between the three drivers on the podium the day before. On the eighth lap, Sean Gelael slid and hit the wall at Sainte Devote, causing the VSC to enter for the first time in the race and for less than one minute. Three laps later, it’s Sergey Sirotkin’s turn to hit the wall at Casino, putting an end to two disastrous races after promising testing sessions. Nicholas Latifi, who had already retired the day before, retired again in the pits while Jordan King got penalized for his collision with Armand.
A mid-race term, Matsushita had a 7.0s margin over Kirchhofer who was under strong pressure from Marciello behind him. Sergio Canamasas, after overtaking Pierre Gasly at the beginning of the race, overtook Gustav Malja at La Rascasse for the eleventh place.
After keeping his gap with a great manner, Nobuharu Matsushita claimed ART Grand Prix’s first victory of the season and caught the fastest lap of the race as well ahead of Marvin Kirchhofer who claimed his first podium in GP2 and Raffaele Marciello.
Norman Nato takes back the lead of the championship only one point ahead of Artem Markelov.
