Nyck de Vries jumped Rapax team-mate Johnny Cecotto Jr into turn one on the opening lap and drove superbly thereafter to claim his maiden FIA Formula 2 Championship victory in the Sprint race around the streets of Monaco on Saturday.
Starting from second place on the grid, McLaren junior de Vries was able to get the better start over Cecotto, who suffered wheelspin as the lights went out, and the Dutchman then began to edge away from his team-mate.
Cecotto found it difficult to keep up with de Vries, and dropped further back as he began to struggle with his tyres, which ended up with the Venezuelan causing a traffic jam behind him, led by Racing Engineering’s Gustav Malja.
Malja was forced to defend from Russian Time’s Luca Ghiotto almost from the start, while Artem Markelov secured fifth in the second Russian Time machine after a great pass on Alexander Albon heading into La Rascasse at mid-distance.
Albon finished just ahead of ART Grand Prix team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita, while the final point went to Jordan King of MP Motorsport, who got the better of Feature race winner Oliver Rowland early on.
Rowland was forced to crawl home in ninth after late race contact with Sergio Canamasas as the two battled for that position, with the Briton losing around fifteen seconds to those ahead of him in the final three laps. Canamasas was forced to pit for a new front wing and dropped to the rear of the field as a result, with Antonio Fuoco moving into the top ten.
Charles Leclerc’s disappointing home event continued on Saturday as the Prema Racing driver retired for a second consecutive day after struggling to improve on his starting position of seventeenth.
The top three on the podium in Monaco – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd
Monaco Sprint Race Result
[table id=2034 /]
