By Steven Oldham Cover photo: Formula 2
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Luke Browning leads F2 title standings
Cheshire’s Luke Browning is the new leader of the FIA Formula 2 Championship after surviving a chaotic weekend at Monaco to record a double points finish.
Hitech’s Browning third place in Saturday’s sprint – his fifth podium of the year – and a fourth placed finish in a shortened feature race boosted his points tally to 70. He replaces Ireland’s Alex Dunne at the top of the standings, who no-scored after a weekend to forget in his Rodin car.
After qualifying ninth on Friday, the Williams Academy driver started the sprint in second place, with DAMS driver Kush Maini on pole. A poor getaway saw him drop to fifth, with Gabriele Mini, Jak Crawford and Arvid Lindblad getting past him before the first corner.
READ MORE: F1 Academy: Palmowski wins incident-packed race
Maini wins, Browning inherits podium finish
A clash between Lindblad and Crawford allowed Browning to retake the latter’s fourth place – and he would later inherit third after a ten-second time penalty was handed out to Lindblad for causing a collision.
Maini took his first win of the season, with second-place Mini taking his best result in Formula 2 to date. Due to Lindblad’s penalty – which dropped him from third to P8 – the rest of the points scorers moved up a place.
Crawford took fourth, with series veteran Richard Verschoor in fifth. Sebastian Montoya was sixth, while Leonardo Fornaroli kept his record as the only driver to score points in every race this season intact in seventh. The final point went to Lindblad.
First corner chaos in Monaco F2 feature race
Just surviving a chaotic sprint race gave any driver a good chance of collecting some points, after a first corner pile-up took out seven cars after polesitter Alex Dunne and the charging Victor Martins came together, with both ending up in the wall.
Browning was able to thread a path through the carnage after another slow start.
Martins had made the better start from second position and looked to have the move done before Dunne’s contact put them both out of the race. Dunne was adjudged by the stewards to be at fault and was handed a drive through penalty after the race – converted to a ten place grid drop for the next event as he didn’t complete the race.
The accident wiped out a further five drivers – Verschoor, Minì, Ritomo Miyata, Pepe Martí and Max Esterson – as cars stacked into one another, with Esterson’s Trident having three wheels off the ground before ending up in the barrier.
Fornaroli leads pack at restart
Unsurprisingly this brought out the red flag, and the time taken to clear the track reduced the race from 42 laps to a time-limited race of 30 minutes. Fornaroli led the field from a rolling start, with the order reverted back to grid positions and excluding the retired cars.
Not even one lap was complete before the virtual safety car was deployed thanks to Joshua Durksen’s AIX car in the barriers – after contact with Maini and the barriers while attempting to overtake the Indian driver.
With Durksen’s car cleared away, Fornaroli, Montoya and Lindblad were able to distance themselves from the chasing pack, before another crash – this time for Browning’s teammate Dino Beganovic – brought another virtual, then full safety car period.
A busy day for the safety car
The timing of the safety car changed the outcome of the race – with Crawford able to stop immediately, as the top three had already passed the pit entry. The American had done enough to take the lead despite the leading trio taking their pit stops with ten minutes left on the clock.
Lindblad was able to jump Montoya in the pits thanks to a faster stop, with Fornaroli leading them both back out onto the circuit – but with Crawford now in first place.
A second red flag was thrown due to the barrier repair needed at Casino Square following Beganovic’s accident – and the race would not restart. This secured victory for Crawford – and DAMS a second win of the weekend.
A case of right place, right time for Crawford leaves Fornaroli still awaiting his first win. Montoya secured his first podium finish, and Browning was again promoted to Lindblad’s expense. The Campos driver was demoted from third to fifth after being handed a five second penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
With less than half distance completed, reduced points were awarded. Maini finished sixth, with Roman Stanek, Amaury Cordeel and Rafael Villegomez rounding out the points scorers.
Attention switches to Barcelona
Browning now heads into Round 6 as the series leader, with his 12 points gained in Monaco enough for him to overhaul Alex Dunne.
Surprisingly, Browning is not among the six winners from the nine races to date this season – with five podiums, consistent points finishes and no retirements to date taking him to the top of the standings.
He will look to consolidate his position at the top next weekend, with a host of competitors waiting in the wings to take his place as a close-run season continues.
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