Prema driver Frederik Vesti has taken his second win of the Formula 2 season, dominating a race that was interrupted by a red flag following a crash for Jack Doohan.
Poleman Vesti had a slow getaway but managed to cover off the ARTs of Victor Martins and Theo Pourchaire, who was briefly pressured by Jack Doohan.
Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman found the overtaking sports further down the field, climbing up from his P16 starting position to P12 on the opening lap.
Up front, Martins started an early fight against race leader Vesti, putting the Prema driver under pressure.
On the cusp of the points, Isack Hadjar was looking for redemption after yesterday’s heartbreak, hunting down Sprint Race winner Ayumu Iwasa, hoping to pressure the Japanese driver into a mistake for a chance to overtake.
As the window for the mandatory pit stops opened, Clement Novalak and Ralph Boschung were the first to blink, getting rid of their super soft tyres and put on the soft tyres.
Home hero Arthur Leclerc had to peel into the pits, after reporting he lost the brakes and ended up retiring the car, mirroring his brother Charles’ F2 run in Monaco back in 2017.
On the cusp on the points in eleventh, Oliver Bearman was fighting Juan Manuel Correa, with the Van Amersfoort Racing’s driver eventually pitting for a fresh set of soft tyres, gaining Bearman another position.
The Red Bull liveried trio of Jak Crawford, Hadjar, and Iwasa were the first to blink in the top ten, running the alternative strategy to the rest of the top ten and getting rid of the super soft tyres they started on.
Among the early pitstops, the top six remained the same as how they started, with Vesti leading both ART drivers, Martins ahead of Pourchaire, followed by Doohan, Zane Maloney, and Richard Verschoor, all drivers still running on old soft tyres.
Lap 19 saw Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi go slow, with big puffs of smoke coming out the back of the car, the Brazilian parking his car in the runoff at the Nouvelle Chicane and bringing out a Virtual Safety Car that was cleared a lap later.
Doohan found the wall as Massenet on lap 24, leaving the stricken Alpine liveried car in the middle of the road, the Austrialian quickly jumping out of the car before flames appeared out and almost getting collected by the Carlin of Maloney.
The Australian driver hit the wall earlier in the lap, causing damage in the rear of the car, which would likely lead to his crash at the top of the hill, undoing Doohan’s season even further as the driver was shown to be heartbroken, but okay.
The Safety Car meant the remaining top 6 peeled into the pitlane, with a poor pit stop for Pourchaire, but the Frenchman managed to stay ahead of Maloney.
The race was red flagged, as there was a fluid from the fire extinguisher all over the track, as well as a lot of debris and allow necessary barrier repairs.
It was an early pit stop for the front runners on the main strategy, who would need to hold onto the super soft tyres for the remaining 18 laps, with Maloney immediately coming on the radio to discuss his strategic options.
Amaury Cordeel, who’d come into the pits early in the race but was able to rejoin the race 18 laps down, was the first one allowed back onto the track to get to the back of the pack, which subsequently came out behind the Safety Car, preparing for a rolling restart, as the remaining lapped cars from Crawford in P9 down were allowed to unlap themselves.
Vesti lead the field away late, with everyone getting a clean getaway, the eight frontrunners almost 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.
Pourchaire immediately put pressure on teammate Martins, as Martins was under investigation for failing to slow under the yellow flags, gaining him a drive-through penalty and dropping down to P8.
Hauger, who’d had a poor qualifying, found himself in fifth thanks to strategy, with Campos’ Kush Maini, who’d started P12 up into sixth and Trident’s Roman Stanek, who started down in P22, making it up to seventh.
After lap 33, it became clear that it would not be possible to run the race to full distance, with only seven minutes left on the clock.
Throughout the field, a few close fights were happening, but overtaking remained difficult, as Martins was putting the pressure on Stanek for P7, while further down Hadjar was fighting Bearman for P11, who in turn was fighting Iwasa for the final point scoring position.
In the end, polesitter Vesti managed to convert his pole into a dominant win, followed by Pourchaire and Maloney.
Richard Verschoor finished in fourth, followed by Hauger, Maini, Stanek, Martins, Crawford, and Iwasa.
Vesti’s victory also means the Dane now leads the championship, ahead of Pourchaire and Iwasa.
