The Ferrari Academy Driver Oliver Bearman took his fourth win of his rookie campaign in the Monza Feature Race after a race that saw many safety cars.
At the start of the race Pourchaire had good reaction times but Bearman ended up overtaking him just before the chaos started behind.
Monza never disappoints in FIA Formula 2 and today was no exception with the second-placed driver in the championship Vesti getting squeezed by Stanek and spinning out of the second chicane which resulted in Stanek receiving a 5 second penalty for this.
? LIGHTS OUT!
?? Wheel to Wheel on the opening lap across the grid.
Bearman comes out on top with the lead ahead of Pourchaire.
? Vesti spins and is out of the race! #F2 #Formula2 #RoadToF1 #ItalianGP ??
— ?????? F2.COM (@F2Inside) September 3, 2023
The championship couldn’t be won today but that eventually left Pourchiare with a 25 point gap to Vesti as they head into the final round.
By lap four the safety was in and we went racing again with the safety car helping with tyre deg with those on the super soft tyres.
At the back of the field, Cordeel had contact with Mason and this caused him to get a puncture. Whilst back at the front Bearman was trying to create a bigger gap between him and Pourchaire before DRS was enabled by lap 6.
More drama unfolded with Leclerc spinning through the Turn 1 polystyrene barriers on the escape road with what is suspected to be a brake failure.
POV: You're a marker board at Monza ?#ItalianGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/gSQkD85lbb
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) September 3, 2023
?? SAFETY CAR! ??
Leclerc is out of the race after a spin on the brakes as he takes evasive action into Turn 1. #F2 #Formula2 #RoadToF1 #ItalianGP ??
— ?????? F2.COM (@F2Inside) September 3, 2023
With yet another safety car out most decided to make their mandatory stop now.
The top two nearly come together in the pit lane as they tried to get ahead of one another at their stops. This was investigated, however, there was no further action taken.
Those on the alternative strategy Daruvala, Doohan and Iwasa did not pit.
Safety car came in at the end of lap 12 but there was a massive crash on the start finish line with Nissany tagging the back of Maloney, and the Red Bull Junior ultimately ending in the wall. Another safety car was deployed and Nissany got a drive through penalty for the incident.
By the end of this safety car period on lap 15, Bearman had mastered the restart and created a massive gap between him and Doohan who was in second at the time.
Pourchaire tried to get around Doohan on lap 17 but he couldn’t get it done, while Daruvala was also coming up behind the pair, however by the first corner of the next lap the Sauber academy driver finally managed to get past the alpine driver.
Martins had a troublesome end to his race, by lap 18 his DRS was stuck open and was shown the black and orange flag. In the pits, it seemed they couldn’t work out why it was stuck open and that was the end of his race weekend.
In the mid-pack, Crawford and Maini make contact at lap 23 with Maini’s wing going under his front wheel and ultimately ending in another safety car.
?? SAFETY CAR ??
Crawford and Maini make contact which ruins both drivers races.
Maini is out with a broken front wing and Crawford drops down to last after a puncture from that contact. #F2 #Formula2 #RoadToF1 #ItalianGP ??
— ?????? F2.COM (@F2Inside) September 3, 2023
This is when Doohan on the alternate strategy boxed onto super softs and comes back out in P10.
Bearman perfected yet another restart with a 0.6 gap across the line on lap 27 restart with the Prema driving saying post race, “It was a tough race. Every time I felt safe a safety car came out.”
Doohan on his new tyres managed to make his way up the field, then Crawford ended up going off in a fight with Stanek bringing out another safety car, this time to end the race as we had run out of laps.
? BEARMAN WINS THE FEATURE RACE AT MONZA!
The @PREMA_Team driver takes victory behind the Safety Car and a home race victory for his team. #F2 #Formula2 #RoadToF1 #ItalianGP ?? pic.twitter.com/YknqsiLflv
— ?????? F2.COM (@F2Inside) September 3, 2023
Bearman after the race said about his win, “I don’t have as much pressure as Theo. I could take more risks.”
With only 16 cars finishing the race, your top 10 of this Monza Feature Race ended up being Bearman, Iwasa, Pourchaire, Fittipaldi, Hauger, Crawford, Daruvala, Cordeel, Boschung and Stanek. With Verschoor crossing the line in the fourth, however, he had a 5 second penalty for an unsafe release.
Pourchaire still is in the lead of the championship going into the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
???? F2 DATA – ROUND 13 ?? MONZA
Nice reading for PREMA ??
1?? With his Sprint Race win, Frederik Vesti now has x6 #F2 wins and ties Théo Pourchaire as the driver with the most wins for an active F2 driver.
2?? Prema Racing won both #Formula2 races in this round. The last team…
— ?????? F2.COM (@F2Inside) September 3, 2023
Image: Formula Motorsport Limited
