Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman climbed from eighth to win Formula 2’s sprint race at Monza, while his Prema team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli was involved in a first-lap collision.
Despite a grid penalty for an incident at the previous round, Bearman worked his way to the front before finishing 1.6 seconds clear of ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins. AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen recovered from 11th to third, while the championship’s top three failed to score points.
Antonelli, who was unveiled as a 2025 Formula 1 driver by Mercedes earlier in the day, was caught up in the aftermath of an incident that happened moments after the start.
ART Grand Prix’s Zak O’Sullivan made contact with MP Motorsport’s F2 debutant Oliver Goethe who then spun into the outside wall. As he crawled towards turn one with damage, O’Sullivan was then collected by Antonelli who limped back to the pits with front-wing damage and a puncture before rejoining the race at the back of the field.
Meanwhile, Van Amersfoort’s Enzo Fittipaldi meanwhile led away from pole but went deep into the first chicane, allowing Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti to sweep by before the safety car was deployed.
Fittipaldi tried to reclaim first place when the race restarted on lap four of 21, but locked up and missed the first chicane completely, losing further positions to ART’s Victor Martins and Prema’s Ollie Bearman.
After wrestling second away from Martins, Bearman snatched the lead on lap seven after pressuring Marti into a mistake heading into turn one. Marti slipped to third and, despite trying to retake Martins for second, was eventually shuffled back to fifth by Fittipaldi and Duerksen, with the latter soon moving up a further place to third.
The front two meanwhile had pulled well clear, with Bearman building a two-second lead over Martins, and the British driver maintained the gap for the remainder of the race.
Duerksen remained in third until the end while, behind him, Fittipaldi struggled with a flat spotted tyre in the closing stages. That allowed Marti to regain fourth with four laps to go, with Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney trying to get involved in the battle.
Marti fended off a renewed challenge from Fittipaldi into the first chicane on the next tour while, behind the pair, Fittipaldi and Hitech GP’s title contender Paul Aron made contact, the latter forced to pit for a new front-wing as a result.
Maloney passed Fittipaldi into the second chicane on the final lap and, despite closing onto the tail of Marti heading towards Ascari, could not find a way by the Spaniard before the chequered flag. Fittipaldi also lost a further place before the finish to DAMS driver Jak Crawford, who also fought his way MP’s Dennis Hauger in the closing stages.
Having started from the back of the grid following a spin in qualifying, Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto stormed through the field but was pipped to the final point in a photo finish with Hauger and came home ninth, one place ahead of chief title rival Isack Hadjar.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
