Zhou dominates from pole as favourites falter

The first race of the weekend in Monaco saw Guanyu Zhou take a lights-to-flag win for his second consecutive race victory in FIA Formula 2.

The Alpine academy driver had pole position by virtue of the reverse grid from qualifying and he was able to get his UNI-Virtuosi car off the line well and he held the lead for all 30 laps of the race.

He extends his championship lead to 26 points over Liam Lawson as a result but will start the remaining two races of the weekend from tenth as a result.

Felipe Drugovich completed the perfect day for UNI-Virtuosi as he came home second, although he had dropped to third at the start after Christian Lundgaard’s stellar start. But the Dane was unfortunate to have smoke pour out of his ART’s engine and he was forced to pull over and out of the race from second.

Roy Nissany completed the podium for what was his first in Formula 2 as he held off Ralph Boschung following a late race safety car for Gianluca Petecof who found the barriers at the swimming pool chicane.

It was a great result for both Nissany and Boschung after neither scored points at the opening round in Bahrain.

Juri Vips was under severe pressure after the safety car restart but he managed to keep his Hitech GP car ahead of the chasing pack to finish fifth with the added two points for fastest lap but he is under investigation for a safety car infringement which could ruin his weekend.

Dan Ticktum was the main charger behind Vips but the tight nature on the Monte-Carlo streets meant he just couldn’t find a way through without putting his Carlin in a dangerous position.

Feature race pole sitter Théo Pourchaire did well to climb three places to seventh, overtaking both PREMA’s off the line. Oscar Piastri sat behind the Frenchman all race but Robert Shwartzman hit the wall at Massenet on the opening lap and damaged his car to the extent that he couldn’t continue. That means he and Lundgaard will start on the last row of the grid for tomorrow’s second sprint race.

Lawson was a comfortable ninth in the end as Marcus Armstrong made a bold move on the last lap to snatch tenth off Jehan Daruvala which gives the Kiwi reverse grid pole tomorrow. He dived under the Indian in Rascasse and completed the move at Anthony Noghes.

Marino Sato also found the wall late on at Sainte Devote but the superb Monaco marshalls had his Trident out of the way by the time the leaders came back around.