Race report
FIA F2 Monaco
F2 Monaco: Drugovich holds off Pourchaire to extend points lead
Felipe Drugovich held off title rival Theo Pourchaire to take his third FIA Formula 2 win from four races in Monaco.
Megan White
Edited: May 30, 2022, 10:37 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The championship leader, who started on pole despite a crash in qualifying, held off pressure from the 2021 Monaco race winner to extend his lead in the standings.
Though ART’s Pourchaire was running within 0.3s of the Brazilian MP Motorsport driver at times, he was unable to pass the leader despite two safety cars.
Drugovich had extended his lead to three seconds in the first part of the race, before the action was neutralised by a safety car on lap 19, with Amaury Cordeel hitting the barriers at Turn 19.
Despite both having had slow pitstops and being held up at the pit exit by the stricken Van Amersfoort Racing car being wheeled back up the road, the pair resumed racing in the same order.
A second safety car on lap 23 after Clement Novalak found the wall at the Fairmont hairpin, having made contact with Liam Lawson, looked set to present another chance for Pourchaire, but Drugovich held fast.
Though Juri Vips closed in on the pair in the final laps, it was Drugovich who held on until the chequered flag, having won both races last weekend in Barcelona.
Pourchaire, who became F2’s youngest ever winner here in 2021, settled for second, with Vips in third, having passed fourth-placed Jack Doohan in the pits.
Both Lawson (Carlin) and Roy Nissany of DAMS stalled on the grid, forcing them to drop to the back of the pack.
Prema Racing rookie Dennis Hauger made big gains on the alternate strategy in the opening lap, passing Marcus Armstrong (Hitech) and teammate Jehan Daruvala on the run to Turn 1.
He then made it past Enzo Fittipaldi for fifth after the pair ran side-by-side into Beau Rivage.
Hitech’s Vips was closing in on Doohan by lap 5, with the Virtuosi driver struggling for pace, but it was in the pits where the pass took place, emerging in front after the second safety car.
The lead could have swapped hands under the same conditions, but both ART and MP Motorsport suffered slow stops, working to Drugovich’s advantage.
Pourchaire was close to Drugovich heading into the Fairmont hairpin on lap 23, but moments later the safety car was deployed after Novalak and Lawson’s contact in the battle for 12th.
Racing resumed on lap 26, and though Pourchaire cut the gap to just 0.3s in the final laps, he was unable to make the past and repeat the feat of last season.
Lawson was a late retirement, suffering a problem and dropping down the order before retiring on lap 37.
Ayumu Iwasa and Calan Williams came together at Fairmont on the final lap, ending both of their races prematurely as they fought for the final points spot.
Fittipaldi finished in fifth for Charouz, with Armstrong in sixth and Hauger in seventh despite his early charge.
Daruvala took eighth, with Logan Sargeant in ninth and Marino Sato rounding off the top 10 for Virtuosi.
F2 Monaco - Feature race results:
Cla # Driver Team Gap 1 11 Felipe Drugovich
MP Motorsport 2 10
Theo Pourchaire
ART Grand Prix 0.800 3 8
Jüri Vips
HitechGP 8.000 4 3
Jack Doohan
UNI-Virtuosi 12.900 5 22
Enzo Fittipaldi
Charouz Racing System 13.500 6 7
Marcus Armstrong
HitechGP 14.700 7 1
Dennis Hauger
Prema Powerteam 15.300 8 2
Jehan Daruvala
Prema Powerteam 15.700 9 6
Logan Sargeant
Carlin 16.100 10 4
Marino Sato
UNI-Virtuosi 24.100 11 23
Cem Bolukbasi
Charouz Racing System 27.600 12 20
Richard Verschoor
Trident 27.700 13 24
Jake Hughes
Van Amersfoort Racing 30.500 14 9
Frederik Vesti
ART Grand Prix 31.600 15 14
Olli Caldwell
Campos Racing 32.600 16 21
Calan Williams
Trident 17 17
Ayumu Iwasa
DAMS 5
Liam Lawson
Carlin 12
Clement Novalak
MP Motorsport 25
Amaury Cordeel
Van Amersfoort Racing 16
Roy Nissany
DAMS View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article F2 Monaco: Hauger takes maiden win after Hughes stalls on grid
Next article Pourchaire: Cordeel F2 car recovery in pitlane was "dangerous"
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Megan White
How an Alonso protege is shaping up to take F2 by storm
FIA F2
FIA F2 Jan 19, 2024
How an Alonso protege is shaping up to take F2 by storm
The key updates in F2’s bold new design
FIA F2
FIA F2 Jan 16, 2024
The key updates in F2’s bold new design
The star-studded graduates of Italy's junior series powerhouse
FIA F2
FIA F2 Jan 9, 2024
The star-studded graduates of Italy's junior series powerhouse
Latest news
Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
1 h
Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac
You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller
MotoGP
Qatar GP
You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller
Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
5 h
Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe