FORMULA 2
 Barnard celebrating his maiden Fomula 2 win. Credits: Joe Portlock via Getty Images In Monte Carlo on Saturday, Taylor Barnard won for the first time in FIA Formula 2 in a drama-filled sprint race. Barnard finished first ahead of Invicta’s Racing Gabriel Bortoleto who was second. Dennis Hauger was third for MP Motorsport. It was a race that had so much action including two safety cars and a red flag. Zane Maloney, the championship leader, retired from the race. How the Monaco F2 Sprint unfoldedThe top 10 would be reversed from the grouped qualifying on friday and Taylor Barnard would start on pole for the sprint race with Gabriel Bortoleto alongside him on the front row. All 22 cars on the grid and the lights went out with BArnard not getting the best of starts but being able to maintain the lead from Bortoleto with Hauger in third but the safety car would be brought out for Victor Martins who ran into the barriers at Saint-Devote. Martins made contact with the rear of Jak Crawford’s DAMS and then running into the barriers. The safety car was deployed. The Safety car wouldn’t be out long as racing would resume on lap 3 as on the restart Barnard would maintain the lead throughout the lap as further back, Oliver Bearman tried a move to the inside of Zak O’Sullivan for 10th on the way to the second Mirabeau. Drivers maintained their positions and racing would be green until lap six when the safety car would make a return. Campos’ Josep Maria Marti found the wall out of the swimming pool section with a mighty whack. The safety car would only be out for a couple more laps and at the start of lap nine, Taylor Barnard would get a good restart and maintain the lead from Bortoleto, Dennis Hauger, Andrea Kimi Antonelli ad Franco Colapinto were the top five. Kush Maini at the start left the track at turn 1 and gained an unfair advantage at the start of the race. Due to this, the Stewards would hand him a penalty of 10 seconds, which will be added to the end of his race time. Lap 11 and this time the virtual safety car would be out due to Richard Verschoor’s front wing being on the track and causing a safety hazard. Replays would be shown and it looked as if the AIX car of Joshua Durksen would run into the back of the Trident sending him into the wall. This would be noted for causing a collision. The Stewards would determine a 10-second penalty would be a fitting punishment for Durksen Sunday’s pole sitter would be forced to pit and his race was as good as done and rejoined in 20th and last. Bearman had a run in to the wall on the final corner and he had reported damage but chose to continue on. Meanwhile, out front, Bortoleto was doing all he could to put pressure on Barnard, despite his team suggesting he should focus on the fastest lap. Bortoleto while going for a fastest lap attempt had dropped back after making a mistake at the Nouvelle chicane. Onto lap 20, the gap was over a second between Barnard and Bortoleto. Dennis Hauger had closed up to the Invicta in second place. Lap 22 and championship leader Maloney had sent it down the inside of O’Sullivan losing a front wing end plate. The drama would not end there for the championship leader as he hit the back of O’Sullivan at Rascasse, who heavy braked. Juan Manuel Correa then tagged round Maloney sending him into a spin.Kush Maini would then try to take evasive action but went left at Rascasse and parked before losing the clutch and stopping, causing a car park at turn 18. The virtual safety car would momentarily come out before the red flag was out. Maloney would be out of the race and so would Maini, while an incident between Maloney and Zak O’Sullivan would be investigated after the race had reached its conclusion. At 15:13 local time, a rolling start procedure would get the remaining six laps of the Monaco sprint back underway. Barnard would get the race restarted with five laps remaining. He got away well from Bortoleto who was still second of Hauger as the top three. Jak Crawford sat 13th in the order and had the fastest lap overall so no bonus point from that thus far. He remarkably had six seconds between himself and 14th place Hitech Amaury Cordeel. His teammate Correa was fancing a look at Oliver Bearman at the start of lap 27. on that lap, Hadjar went across the Nouvelle Chicane. He let Aron maintain the position in front of him. But due to making the mistake, he was under pressure from Enzo Fittipaldi for Van Amersfoort. Bearman was tapped in the rear from Correa. Correa would be noted for that incident but no further investigation would be necessary for the Stewards. Taylor Barnard was flying and in the first three laps of the restart he had pulled a four second gap over second place Bortoleto. The British AIX driver was the only driver yet to score in the season and was set to take his maiden victory at Monaco, a street where he had already raced in 2024 – in Formula E with NEOM McLaren. Barnard had demonstrated fantastic skill out front and showed fantastic class out front. He bossed the restarts to a fantastic skill and he came home to win the sprint race for his first points, podium and victory in FIA Formula 2. He finished clear of Gabriel Bortoleto, who was second for his second podium in the category and his second podium in succession. Dennis Hauger was third for MP Motorsport. Andrea Kimi Antonelli matched his joint best finish in Formula 2 with fourth. He was ahead of Franco Colapinto in fifth and Roman Stanek in sixth. Paul Aron was seventh and Isack Hadjar rounded off the points scoring in eighth. Maloney’s lead comes down to three points ahead of Paul Aron going into Sunday’s feature race. 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 5 – Monaco sprint race result
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - f1journal.co.uk
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