Official F1 Journal Formula 2 Sunday Round Up- Monza

Its the penultimate feature race of the F2 season and the pressure was on for the top 2 in the standings to score as many points as possible. Current Championship leader Pourchaire couldn't win the championship at Monza this weekend but after a rivsl Vesti won the sprint race yestersay with Pourchaire 4th, the frenchman needed to arrive at Yas Marina with the biggest gap possible.  

F2 Feature Race 

Championship leader Pourchaire lined upon pole with Vesti's Prema team mate Bearan lining up next to him and he didnt waste anytime trying to get past Pourchaire and after not getting the move made in turn 1 went side by side with the ART driver into the 1st chicane and took the lead on the exit, mean while Vesti was battling with Stanek when he was spun by the other driver on the stright and just like that his race and any hope of further closing the championship battle were over. Vesti wasnt alone in his retirement as Novolak winner of the Zandvoort feature race was also out of the race and the safety car was called out to clean up both cars. 

​3rd in the championship Victor Martins had made it upto 3rd before the safety car with a great around the 2nd Lesmo on Hauger, Doohan had made up 2 places to 12th.
​Lap 4 and they went racing again and Bearma showed he was the master of the restart at Monza as he made a sucessful run for it leaving Pourchaire unable to even consider a move into the first corner, infact there were no changes of position off the restart and after the first green flag lap of racing Bearman had an almost 1 second gap back to Pourchaire. Cordeal picked up a puncture and dropped to last as the DRS was enabled and with that Pourchaire started to set fastest laps but was still unable to get close to the rapid Prema before a huge crash for Leclerc brought out the safety car again.

 Leclerc couldn't get the car stopped into turn 1 and had to take avoiding action to stop from hitting cars in front of him and threw out the anchors to stop before reentering the track into the path of other cars but that meant he could no continue and the run off at turn 1 needed some repairs.
​It was during this safety car that the team s chose to pit, with everyone coming in witht he exception of Doohan, Iwasa and Daruvela who started on the alternative strategy. It was very tight in the pits but Prema got Bearman back out into the lead, followed by Pourchire but 3rd place man Martins who had been double stack behind team mate Pourchaire had dropped to 11th. 

The race restarted on lap 12 with Daruvela in the lead, Doohan 2nd and Iwasa 3rd not of whom had made their mandatory pit stop yet, Bearman was 5th and Pourchaire 6th. the top 3 immediately went into a 3 way battle that saw the lead change 3 times in a matter of 30 meters but behind a very scary incident for Zane Maloney saw Roy Nissany clip his rear wheel at full racing speed on the start finish straight at the restart and the driver from Barbados took a huge hit into the wall that brought out the 4th of 7 safety cars of the day.  Daruvela dove into the pits to make his mandatory stop followed by Iwasa leaving doohan the only man not to have made his stop. ​

When the race restarted on lap 16/30 Bearman had the lead after getting Doohan just before the safety car was called for the Maloney crash, Doohan 2nd, Pourchaire 3rd, and Martin had made it back up to 7th.
Bearman went early again and like before he had a massive lead as he crossed the line stopping the cars behind from mounting any kind of move into turn 1, Pourchaire had a good look at Doohn but the move wasnt there and the frenchman was couldn't take any chances in the championship fight. Crawford and Martins passed the car of Vershoor off the restart before Martins then over took Crawford to go after the top 4 and again Pourchaire had a look to make a move on Doohan but still Doohan came out infront despite his old tyres.
Lap 17 and Bearman had a 2.6 second lead over Pouchaire and was running a brilliant race gaining another 3 tenths over the 2nd place man in the next 2 laps to bring the gap to almost 3 seconds. Mean while the DRS flap on the Alpine Academy liveried ART car of Martins wpouldn't close so Martins had DRS for the whole lapnand he was given the back and orange flag for it and was forced to retire from the race( great for Bearman and Prema in the championship)

© Fia Formula 2

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Lap 23 and Bearman's lead was stable at 2.5 seconds over Pourchaire when ANOTHER Safety car period was needed for the car of Maini who after a great scrap with Jak Crawford picked up a puncture and went into the wall at the Curva Grande. Doohan took this chance to make his stop, followed by Crawford who also picked up a puncture in the incident with Maini.  
Lap 27 /30 and again Bearman lead the grid around to restart the racing with a huge lead over Pourchaire behind but Iwasa was much closer to the ART and made a brilliant move on the outside of turn1 and then inside of turn 2 to take 2nd position leaving Pourchaire vulnerable to Vershoor behind him but could get the move done. 

3 to go and Bearman had a 1.6 second  lead again when for the last time of the day the Safety car joined the track so the car of Crawford who had crashed at the exit of the Ascari chicane and the race ended in formation behind the safety car that had seen so much action. 
Bearman wins, Iwasa 2nd, Pourchaire 3rd. 
A really brilliant race from Ollie Bearman at the home of the Ferrari driver Academy he drives for and the home race of his current team Prema made the victory extra special for the British driver.

Feature Race Result 

1 BEA     2 IWA
3 POU    4 FIT
5 HAU    6 DOO
7 DAR    8 ACO
9 BOS   10 STA
11HAD   12 MAS
13 VER   14 JCO
15 NIS     16 CRA
DNF's
MAI, MAR, MAL, LEC, VES, NOV

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @ F1 Journal