On the soggy streets of Monaco, Liam Lawson claimed a superb FIA Formula 2 victory for Hitech GP despite a late race safety car throwing a spanner in the works.
The New Zealander was second on the grid but he was the furthest forward after the luckless Marcus Armstrong broke down on the reconnaissance lap and was forced to start from pit lane, rather than pole that he had earned with a stunning pass at the end of the first sprint race on Friday.
Oscar Piastri had jumped the Kiwi at the start but Lawson made the race winning move down the inside into La Rascasse and never looked like relinquishing that lead.
Dan Ticktum also made a great move on Piastri at the Nouvelle chicane and he closed right up on the Red Bull backed Lawson but he didn’t have enough to make a move meaning he had to settle for second in the Carlin.
Piastri held off Lawson’s charging Hitech GP teammate Juri Vips at the end after the Estonian overtook Théo Pourchaire into Mirabeau just before the safety car was deployed with David Beckmann spun out of the race by Bent Viscaal at Sainte Devote.
That was also where Gianluca Petecof’s race ended on lap one with contact from the same driver before Viscaal’s teammate Marino Sato pulled off in that same run off area mid way through the race.
Ralph Boschung held off numerous attacks to finish sixth ahead of the MP Motorsport duo of Richard Verschoor and Lirim Zendeli, both of whom had to make bold moves to pass Jehan Daruvala who just missed out on points while Jack Aitken scored a top ten for HWA Racelab.
Robert Shwartzman started at the back after his lap one DNF in Friday’s race but he still finished 11th by staying out of trouble. He made a late race switch to slicks in the hope of them being much faster than the very worn out wets but he was too far back to gain any places, despite setting the fastest lap by over two seconds on the final tour.
Armstrong’s race ended early at Sainte Devote while for the second race in a row, Christian Lundgaard pulled over at Mirabeau with issues. Roy Nissany also failed to finish after smacking the wall at Sainte Devote as he dragged his DAMS round to the pits to retire with damage.
After a 1-2 finish yesterday, UNI-Virtuosi had an awful day which saw both drivers gamble early on dry tyres, but being 25 seconds off the pace meant they were quickly lapped and changing back onto wets cost them more time, seeing both two laps down and Guanyu Zhou ended up three laps down after a mistake.
Pos. | Name | Team | Laps/Gap |
1 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 28 Laps |
2 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | +8.068 |
3 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | +8.833 |
4 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | +9.240 |
5 | Théo Pourchaire | ART | +10.169 |
6 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | +14.336 |
7 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +16.449 |
8 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | +21.452 |
9 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +23.962 |
10 | Jack Aitken | HWA Racelab | +24.378 |
11 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | +47.2993 |
12 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | +71.957 |
13 | Alessio Deledda | HWA Racelab | +1 Lap |
14 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | +1 Lap |
15 | Felipe Drugovich | UNI-Virtuosi | +2 Laps |
16 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | +3 Laps |
17 | David Beckmann | Charouz | DNF (Crash) |
18 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | DNF (Damage) |
19 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | DNF (Mechanical) |
20 | Marino Sato | Trident | DNF (Mechanical) |
21 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | DNF (Mechanical) |
22 | Gianluca Petecof | Campos | DNF (Crash) |