Taylor Barnard made good use of reversed-grid pole to score his and AIX Racing’s first Formula 2 victory in a red-flag disrupted sprint race in Monte Carlo.
A slightly slow start resulted in Barnard being immediately challenged by Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto off the line, with the pair brushing wheels, but the British driver arrived at Sainte Devote with the lead.
MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger maintained third ahead of Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli, while MP’s Franco Colapinto squeezed around the outside of Trident’s Roman Stanek for fifth. ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins immediately lost several places from ninth on the grid, and then damaged his front wing in a collision with Jak Crawford at turn one before crashing into the barriers.
The safety car was deployed while Martin’s car was craned away, and when racing resumed Barnard maintained first place ahead of Bortoleto while Hauger avoided damage despite kissing the armco exiting the final corner.
It wasn’t long before the race was neutralised for a second time due to Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti crashing heavily into the barriers at the swimming pool chicane after bouncing over the kerbs and then losing control.
Barnard remained ahead at the restart and then edged three seconds clear but the race was then red-flagged in the closing stages after a coming together that put points leader Zane Maloney out the race. Having already damaged a front-wing endplate in contact with Zak O’Sullivan at the hairpin, Maloney rear-ended the ART GP driver for a second time at La Rascasse and then was spun around by Juan Manuel Correa.
Invicta’s Kush Maini became stranded after being forced to take evasive action of Maloney, and after trying to rejoin then stalled on the racing line, leaving the track blocked. The enforced stoppage gave the field an opportunity to change tyres, and the race got back underway with a rolling restart on lap 26 of 30.
Barnard again pulled clear and finished 5.2 seconds clear of Bortoleto who came home 0.5s ahead of Hauger. Antonelli was fourth ahead of Colapinto and Stanek, while Hitech GP’s Paul Aron closed to within one point of Maloney in the standings by finishing seventh. Campos driver Isack Hadjar strengthened his own title hopes by scoring the final point in eighth ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi and O’Sullivan.
Following a difficult qualifying and subsequent penalty, Prema’s Ollie Bearman climbed from 15th on the grid and resisted a final-lap challenge from Correa at La Rascasse to finish 11th.
Trident’s Richard Verschoor, who secured his maiden pole position for the feature race in Friday’s qualifying, was forced to pit with a damaged front wing damage during the sprint race and came home 16th.
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
