Formula 2 were tested through the streets of Monaco, in the championship lead of the Zhou

The tricky and shortest circuit on the calendar showed once again that the racing here is very demanding indeed. Like Formula 3, this year’s edition features a trio of races, with Monaco’s contest being the second stop on this year’s calendar after Bahrain.

French driver Théo Pourchaire dominated qualifying, which was split into two parts of 11 drivers and 16 minutes each. He absolutely demolished the rest of the starting field, as the gap between him and second-placed Robert Schwarzman was more than 4 tenths. In addition to pole position, the Frenchman also scored 4 championship points.

Race 1 – Sprint (30 laps)

As in F3, the first sprint race, unusually held on Friday, worked with an inverted grid. This time, the top ten were reversed, leaving the Chinese Kuan-Yu Zhou in first position. He was joined on the front row by his UNI-Virtuosi teammate Felipe Drugovich.

The latter fell back after the start, but thanks to a technical break by Dane Lungaard, who passed him at the start, the Brazilian was able to move back up to second place.

Chou and Drugovich were then joined on the podium by Israeli rider Roy Nissany. Furthermore, it was the first career top 3 finish in F2 for the Williams F1 Team’s junior academy driver.

Race 2 – Sprint (45 minutes time limit filled)

Race 2 was heavily affected by standing water on the track from the overnight rain. The competitors took to the track as early as 8:20 and battled very difficult conditions right from the start. Gianluca Petecof was forced off the track right at the start and it was the second non-finish in a row for the Brazilian.

Marcus Armstrong for DAMS was supposed to start the race from first place, but technical problems from before the start condemned him to start from pit lane. De facto first to start was the winner of the very first race of the season in Bahrain and ninth from the first sprint in Monaco, Liam Lawson.

And the driver, who is in the Red Bull academy with his Hitech Grand Prix team-mate Jüri Vips, made a brilliant manoeuvre into the famous chicane behind the tunnel after a poor start to take the lead back from Oscar Piastri.

And he never let go. Although he reached the finish line first, the victory fell into the lap of second-placed Dan Ticktum thanks to a technical infringement.

Ticktum took his second victory in Formula 2. The race was not completed within the original 30-lap time limit because of the rule that the race must not exceed 45 minutes. And the wet track, together with the number of VSCs (Virtual Safety Car – ed.), made it impossible to complete the full number of laps.

Race 3 – Main Race (42 laps)

The last race had already set the starting grid as determined by Thursday’s qualifying. In a race that is longer than the previous two and in which the drivers have to pit compulsorily, we saw several VSCs. Ticktum and Lirim Zendeli ended the race with their mistakes, while Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala finished after collisions.

The big tactical battle was played by the already mentioned Kuan-Yu Zhou, who stayed on the track for a long time with the same tyres as at the start. He didn’t head to his mechanics until lap 37 of 42 and eventually finished in 5th place.

Last year’s champion, Oscar Piastri, took the silver medal, but Théo Pourchaire finished first. At only 17 years of age, the Frenchman was the youngest ever to win the race.

It is these two who are chasing Chou at the top of this year’s points. The next Formula 2 weekend is in just 14 days’ time, when the 22 warriors will once again be racing on the city circuit. It will take place between 4 and 6 June.

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