Oliver Bearman took his second FIA Formula 2 victory of the season with a barnstorming performance at Monza in Saturday’s Sprint Race.
Bearman, still part of the Ferrari Academy as he prepares to make his Formula 1 debut with Haas next year, fittingly took the chequered flag in-front of the Tifosi by one-and-a-half seconds from Victor Martins, with Joshua Durksen third.
Josep Maria Marti was fourth, with Zane Maloney fifth after a fine drive. Jak Crawford was sixth with pole position man Enzo Fittipaldi seventh after an early lock-up caused a flat spot, compromising his race.
Dennis Hauger was eighth, with Gabriel Bortoleto ninth and Isack Hadjar tenth.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
At the start, Fittipaldi launched off the line as Cordeel got away poorly. Towards the foot of the grid, a F2 debutant Oliver Goethe was tagged, causing him to spin into the barrier on approach to the braking zone into T1. Zak O’Sullivan was collected also, who in turn made contact with Kimi Antonelli.
Further back, Marti picked-up vastly more momentum out of the Rettifilo than Fittipaldi and took the lead into the Curve Grande, the pair side-by-side on the approach to the Roggia chicane, with Marti maintaining his advantage, but any further race was quickly halted by the Safety Car being deployed to clear-up the carnage left by the accident.
Antonelli, fresh from the announcement as a Mercedes Formula 1 driver from next season, crawled back to the pits for repairs, his front-left tyre shredding as he made his way back to the pits.
At the restart into lap four, Marti slowed-up the pack but fell into Fittipaldi’s clutches, the Brazilian locking-up at the Rettifilo and opting to use the escape road, handing the lead back to Marti and dropping to fourth behind Martins and Bearman. Fittipaldi would later be heard on the radio complaining that his brakes failed to slow him down enough.
Lap five, and Bearman tried to overtake Martins for second at T1, but not without a fight from Frenchman, but the Haas-bound Englishman held very firm to keep the position. Further behind, Aron lost fifth to Durksen.
On lap seven, Bearman managed to get himself past Marti to take the lead, and began to stretch a lead, as Martins and Marti would jostle for position, the ART man keeping his position.
The pair’s battle continued into lap nine, Marti slinging it up the inside into the Rettifilo, with Martins needing to take evasive action and jump across the kerb, and would keep his place. The tussle left both of them both susceptible to Fittipaldi’s attentions, and he would indeed overtake Marti for third.
At the front, Bearman was now around two seconds ahead with Durksen now the next man to overtake Marti.
Martins now set about hunting Bearman, making a gap of his own with Fittipaldi now dropping back. Within the middle of the pack, Bortoleto overtook his team-mate Kush Maini for 10th place.
On lap 13, into the Rettifilio, Durksen took Fittipaldi for fourth, who would not give-up the place, grasping for it all the way down to the Roggia, but having to concede the place, taking to the run-off and making it back onto the racing line with Marti sniffing around. Fittipaldi once again took to his team radio, angrily opining that Durksen had weaved and continued to do so under-braking.
In the gaggle of cars between sixth and ninth, with Crawford and Aron side-by-side into the Rettifilo, the American claiming the title-chasing Estonian ran him out of road.
With five laps left, Martins set the fastest lap so far but still remained just under two seconds behind Bearman, who looked comfortable out in-front.
Fittipaldi was starting to struggle, with Marti and Maloney trying to displace him, with both Aron and Hauger also keeping interested behind them. Into T1 on lap 18, Marti took Fittipaldi, the flat spot he had been nursing since lock-up slowing him up significantly.
As the midfielders bunched-up as Maloney attempted unsuccessfully to take Fittipaldi at the first chicane, Aron and Maloney touched, with part of the front wing flying off the Hitech, dropping him out of the points and needing to pit.
On the penultimate lap, Crawford managed to keep himself ahead of a charging Hauger, with Bortoleto and Maini looking keen to make capital.
On the final lap, Maloney made a sensational move on Fittipaldi at the Roggia chicane to take fifth, but it was all in a day’s work for Bearman, who took a brilliant win.
Martins came home second and pinched the fastest lap off Bearman for an extra point, with Durksen taking a very impressive third place.
Further back, the Maloney, Crawford and Fittipaldi battle remained until the very last, with Maloney nabbing fifth by a fraction, the trio all side-by-side across the finish line.
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