F2 Monza: Daruvala wins feature race after red flag interruption

Prema driver Daruvala used a well-timed pitstop prior to a red flag to put himself in prime position to score his first feature race win in the category to add to his tally of three sprint victories.

Poleman Jack Doohan (Virtuosi) had a slow getaway off the line on the warm-up lap and failed to launch well at the start, dropping down the order as Liam Lawson grabbed the holeshot in his Carlin-run car.

Chaos ensued on the exit of the first chicane as Theo Pourchaire made contact with Ralph Boschung, sending the Campos driver into the barrier on the way into Curve Grande as Pourchair’s ART was sent into a spin.

This incident also collected Ollie Caldwell (Campos) and Luca Ghiotto, who was standing in for banned racer Roy Nissany at DAMS.

Further up the road into the second chicane, the recovering Doohan was forced into a collision with Carlin’s Logan Sargeant by a swerving Daruvala.

The resulting damage forced both into retirement as the safety car was called, while the incident is currently under investigation.

A second safety car neutralised the race on lap eight when Trident’s Calan Williams was pitched into the barrier midway through Ascari by Van Amersfoort’s David Beckmann.

With the stricken Trident unable to be safely removed, the race was red-flagged on the ninth lap.

The second safety car led to most making their mandatory pitstop, with Richard Verschoor – who started on hard rubber – staying out along with Marino Sato.

At the red flag, early leader Lawson was stuck down in 10th for the restart while Trident’s Verschoor stayed on the harder tyre.

Ahead of the restart, fifth-placed Marcus Armstrong was slapped with a 10-second time penalty for what race direction described as a failure to follow race director’s procedures – most likely for his wild pit-entrance under safety car conditions.

The race got back underway at 10:55 local time after a brief stoppage, with Verschoor leading the pack.

Daruvala was the highest-placed driver who had already stopped in third and would move ahead of Sato into Turn 1 at the start of lap 18.

Sato would head for the pitlane two tours later as Verschoor continued to run at the front on his ageing hard tyres.

Come the end of lap 25, Verschoor finally made his mandatory pitstop, releasing Daruvala into a comfortable drive to his first feature race victory.

Frederick Vesti ended up 1.9s off in second in his ART-run car to complete a double podium at Monza, with the DAMS car of Ayumu Iwasa rounding out the rostrum.

The crash chaos allowed Enzo Fittipaldi to claim fourth for Charouz ahead of Prema’s Dennis Hauger and Beckmann.

Newly-crowned F2 champion Felipe Drugovich was seventh in a scrappy race for MP Motorsport as Van Amersfoort’s Amaury Cordeel, Clement Novalak in the sister MP car and Verschoor completed the top 10.

Lawson’s race went from bad to worse after the red flag restart when he was spun round by Hitech’s Juri Vips at Turn 4 on lap 13.

The sprint race winner was hit with a 10-second stop/go penalty for the collision, while Lawson was forced to make a pitstop for a front wing change.

This dropped him out of the points to 14th behind Armstrong after his penalty, Sato and Vips.

As well as the crashers, Charouz driver Tatiana Calderon did not take the start on medical advice, though it’s not clear what the problem was.

Iwasa was later disqualified from the race after the rear plank of his car was found to be below the maximum thickness required by the Technical Regulations.

This promoted Enzo Fittipaldi to third for Charouz, his sixth podium of the season.

Monza F2 - Feature race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	2	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam
2	9	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	1.900
3	17	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	5.700
4	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	6.400
5	1	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	7.200
6	24	David Beckmann	Van Amersfoort Racing	7.800
7	11	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	10.500
8	25	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing	12.700
9	12	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	27.900
10	20	Richard Verschoor	Trident	35.100
11	8	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	45.600
12	4	Marino Sato	UNI-Virtuosi	47.500
13	7	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	54.700
14	5	Liam Lawson	Carlin	1'31.500
15	21	Calan Williams	Trident
16	3	Jack Doohan	UNI-Virtuosi
17	6	Logan Sargeant	Carlin
18	10	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix
19	16	Luca Ghiotto	DAMS
20	15	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing
21	14	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing
22	23	Tatiana Calderon	Charouz Racing System
View full results