After a month away from action, Formula 2 came back with a bang in Monaco. Guanyu Zhou continued his dominance, leading from lights-to-flag to win the first Sprint Race on a dry Friday.
Then, on a wet Saturday, Liam Lawson finished the race in first, but was disqualified for a “technical non-conformity”, promoting Dan Ticktum to the top spot. Finally, in the feature race, Theo Pourchaire produced a stunning drive to become the youngest ever Formula 2 race winner.
We instantly got a taste of what we missed in the Thursday qualifying session with Pourchaire becoming F2’s youngest ever polesitter, beating Ferrari Academy driver Robert Shwartzman by nearly half a second.
With the Sprint Race having the top 10 from qualifying reversed, it was the championship leader Zhou who found himself starting the race from the front. He finished ahead of his teammate Felipe Drugovich and Roy Nissany in third.
As one of just four drivers to have experienced the streets of Monaco in an F2 car before, Zhou enjoyed a perfect getaway, pulling off into the distance immediately.
Christian Lundgaard, the main challenger to Zhou’s throne, found his second place under threat as smoke bellowed from the back of his ART. The Danish driver dropped back significantly before coming to a halt.
It was all going well for the leader until Gianluca Petecof collided with the wall, bringing out a safety car. This allowed Drugovich to catch up with the Chinese driver with just three laps to go. However, Zhou aced the restart and went on to win his second race of the year, third in his F2 career.
At the very final corner of the first Sprint Race, Marcus Armstrong overtook Jehan Daruvula to finish in 10th place, which put him in reverse grid pole for the second race.
But it would be heartbreak for the New Zealander as his car broke down on his way to the grid, forcing him to start from the pits after the mechanics got it working.
This left the first grid position open, which third place Oscar Piastri took full advantage of, leapfrogging Lawson. However, the Red Bull Academy driver marshalled the wet conditions expertly, reclaiming the lead five laps in.
British driver Dan Ticktum gave the Hitech driver a run for his money, but Lawson refused to surrender, keeping the Williams Academy driver at bay in the tumultuous conditions.
However, the race wasn’t concluded until 4 hours after the chequered flag. Out of left field, the FIA disqualified Lawson for using an illegal throttle map at the race start. The FIA stated: “The drivers are required to use a defined throttle pedal progressivity map programmed in position 1 of the steering wheel throttle map rotary knob during all formation lap starts and race starts until the car speed reaches 50kph.
“Following an investigation after the race, the Stewards found that Lawson used a different throttle map at the race start, a breach of Technical Regulations, Article 3.6.5.”
The action didn’t end there as the feature race did not disappoint. 17-year-old Pourchaire dominated the now dry streets of Monte Carlo. Piastri took another second-place finish with Brazilian Drugovich, on an alternate strategy, finishing third.
Pourchaire made no mistake from pole but had to fend off a fast-starting Shwartzman to hold the lead into St Devote with Piastri slotting into third. A disastrous pit stop for Shwartzman allowed Piastri and Ticktum to overtake the Russian driver.
On lap 34, Ticktum tried to overtake Piastri around the outside of the Rascasse corner but very quickly ran out of road and met the wall.
Zhou, who hadn’t done his mandatory pit stop, finally came in on lap 36 of 42 which put Pourchaire officially back in first.
Leader Pourchaire made light work of the final laps to score an impressive victory from Piastri and Drugovich. Shwartzman was left to settle for fourth ahead of Zhou and Ralph Boschung.
After being stripped of victory in race two earlier today, Lawson put in a strong drive to claim seventh.Zhou leads the championship standings by 16 points from Piastri ahead of round three at Baku, Azerbaijan on the 4th of June.
By Charlie Parker
