Official F1 Journal Formula 2 Friday Round Up- Monza

Its the penultimate race of the season for the Formula 2 and the title fight is on between former team mates at ART Theo Pourchaire and Fredrik Vesti( now driving for Prema) and the battle behind threatening to make it a 3 or 4 car race to the final weekend of the season in Abu Dhabi. Every point counts at Monza 

Practice- Dry 

After the Chaos of Zandvoort, the beginning of practice at Monza was comparatively calm, with teams getting in consistent, calm running for their drivers and cars. Daruvela briefly found the gravel on track and with 33 minutes to go Maloney set the fastest time, but after that we started to see the times drop with Hauger, Daruvela and Bearman all moving into the top 10 while Championship contenders Pourchaire, Iwasa and Vesti were down in 16th, 18th & 20th. 
After everyone had set a fast lap it was Ollie Bearman that had topped the times, with Martins 2nd and Leclerc running in 3rd.
The Rodin-Carlin car of Fittipaldi was in the pits and out of the car with a possible problem but the team got him under way soon after. 

11 minutes to go and drivers pushing start to make mistakes, the great talent of Zane Maloney was pushed  by the speed of Monza as he was forced to make a brilliant catch after almost losing the car on the exit of the 2nd Lesmo corners and Bearman was pushing hard enough to drop 2 tyres onto the dirt on a push lap. Mean while the 2 championship Rivals were playing mind games with each other when they met on track during an out lap, with Vesti running very slow to try and push Pourchaire past him, trying to win the mental war before the competitive sessions have even started. All of which was completely unnecessary as Hauger  had a massive spin at Turn 11 after putting 2 wheels on the grass strip on the edge of a track bringing out a red flag and ending the session prematurely.  

Qualifying- Dry

It was a slow start to qualifying with only Novalak going out for quite a while with 26 minutes to go there was no times on the board. 2 minutes later the cars filed out we almost got a full lap from one of them but 
again the filled back in to the pit lane and we had to wait till 18 minutes were left on the clock before Ralph Boschung set a lap and after that they came thick and fast Doohan, Iwasa started laps and next Bearman was on the move looking very fast. 
After the first round of laps it was Victor Martins top followed by Bearman & Pourchaire but the top time just kept tumbling and on the 2nd runs of qualifying it was Theo Pourchaire who took the top spot with championship rival Vesti in 6th. 
When it came time for the final run of the day unfortunately we didn't get to see everyone best. Jockeying for position on the out lap and the traffic that ensued after nobody wanted to lead the pack round and everyone wanted the precious Monza slipsteam meant that Doohan, Maini and Vershoor didnt make the line before the flag fell so didnt set a final time. Of those who did not many improved and at the end of the session Pourchaire took Pole and 2 additonal points to help is championship push,  a very fast and feisty looking Ollie Bearman took 2nd with Stanek in 3rd. Vesti finioshed in 8th and Doohan starts 14th. 

Qualifying Result

1 POU    2 BEA 
3 STA      4 HAD 
5 MAR     6 MAI
7 CRA     8 VES
9 VER     10 BOS 
11 HAU    12 LEC 
13 FIT      14 DOO
15 IWA     16 DAR
17 NIS     18  JCO
19 ACO    20 MAL
21 NOV    22 MAS

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer @ F1 Journal