After what has been a slightly disappointing season, Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala put on a dominant display in the second Sprint Race of the weekend at Monza to claim his first victory of the season, ahead of Trident rookie Bent Viscaal and PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman, who took an impressive fourth podium of the year.
Given the chaos of the opener, the second Sprint Race was the complete opposite with the race itself being relatively benign, with Daruvala crossing the line just over six seconds in front of Viscaal, who took his first ever FIA Formula 2 podium.
Shwartzman managed to get onto the podium late on in the race after double reverse polesitter David Beckmann who once again has his tyres to blame for not taking what could have been two podiums, locked up late in the race and fell from second to fifth, behind Liam Lawson.
Championship rivals Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou finished one behind the other in seventh and eighth, whilst Hitech Grand Prix’s Jüri Vips was ahead of them in sixth.
Lining up from pole for the second race in succession, Beckmann endured an almost identical start getting off the line poorly, this time it was the Carlin of Daruvala who took advantage of this and got the jump on him, launching off the line and going down the inside into Turn 1 to put his car which was as usual running a Red Bull Livery into the lead of the race.
After a great getaway, Viscaal was had made up one place to third, ahead of Vips, but Sprint Race 1 hero Christian Lundgaard would not experience the same glory after he was spun around and fell down the timing sheets to the back of the field.
Théo Pourchaire and Piastri who are no strangers to battling each other started to tussle. The Frenchman had already passed Zhou and was trying to muscle his way ahead of Piastri too, eventually making the move stick after several corners of epic racing and battling.
A Virtual Safety Car meant that Piastri was unable to reply to the Frenchman’s move, as HWA RACELAB teammates Jake Hughes and Alessio Deledda collided, leaving the Briton’s car stuck in the wall. Guilherme Samaia had also pulled his Charouz Racing System car to a stop at the pit entrance suffering a disappointing second retirement of the weekend.
After momentarily losing fifth to Lawson, Shwartzman recovered to not only reclaim P5 but went one better snatching fourth from Vips as well, who then would fall a place further behind his Hitech teammate, perhaps another driver struggling with tyre management.
Piastri in his attempt to reply to the ART set the fastest lap and would regain seventh from Race 1 winner Pourchaire, with his car running wide and opening him up to a potential move by Zhou who was unable to get passed the young Frenchman this time around.
As a result of this Piastri got a gap as Pourchaire was forced to switched his attention to defending P8, but the Sprint Race 1 winner missed the chicane in his efforts at doing so and had to go through the escape road, coming home in ninth and out of the points scoring positions.
Daruvala was looking untroubled out in front, but behind him it was a different story with Beckmann and Viscaal battling for P2, six seconds further back. The Campos locked up at Turn 1 and had to take the escape road. Re-entering the racetrack in third position, he attempted to take back second place but the Stewards had noted that he had re-joined the track unsafely.
Viscaal brushed off the challenge and managed to even get a gap to third position behind, as first Shwartzman, and then Lawson, both jumped Beckmann who will have been disappointed to yet again miss out on a podium and dropped him to fifth ahead of the chequered flag. Vips managed to hold onto sixth in front of championship protagonists Piastri and Zhou.
Full Sprint Race 2 Results
| Position | Driver | Nation | Team | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jehan Daruvala | IND | Carlin | 21 Laps |
| 2 | Bent Viscaal | NED | Trident | + 6.1 |
| 3 | Robert Shwartzman | RUS | Prema Racing | + 9.3 |
| 4 | Liam Lawson | NZL | Hitech Grand Prix | + 9.9 |
| 5 | David Beckmann | GER | Campos Racing | + 10.8 |
| 6 | Juri Vips | EST | Hitech Grand Prix | + 11.1 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | AUS | Prema Racing | + 11.7 |
| 8 | Guanyu Zhou | CHI | UNI-Virtuosi Racing | + 12.2 |
| 9 | Ralph Boschung | SWI | Campos Racing | + 12.9 |
| 10 | Theo Pourchaire | FRA | ART Grand Prix | + 15.4 |
| 11 | Dan Ticktum | GBR | Carlin | + 15.6 |
| 12 | Lirim Zendeli | GER | MP Motorsport | + 17.8 |
| 13 | Richard Verschoor | NED | MP Motorsport | + 21.7 |
| 14 | Christian Lundgaard | DEN | ART Grand Prix | + 25.4 |
| 15 | Marcus Armstrong | NZL | DAMS | + 26.8 |
| 16 | Enzo Fittipaldi | BRA | Charouz Racing System | + 33.2 |
| 17 | Felipe Drugovich | BRA | UNI-Virtuosi Racing | + 35.3 |
| 18 | Roy Nissany | ISR | DAMS | + 40.0 |
| 19 | Alessio Deledda | ITA | BWT HWA Racelab | + 43.4 |
| 20 | Marino Sato | JPN | Trident | + 82.1 |
| DNF | Jake Hughes | GBR | BWT HWA Racelab | DNF |
| DNF | Guilherme Samaia | BRA | Charouz Racing System | DNF |
