Leonardo Fornaroli extended his Formula 2 points lead by taking his fourth victory of the season on home soil in Saturday’s sprint race at Monza.
The Invicta Racing driver climbed from third on the partially-reversed grid to first, before leading home Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad and AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen.
Fornaroli’s weekend intially got off to a bad start in Friday’s qualifying, with his car grinding to halt on circuit with a mechanical issue. He still ended the session ninth quickest, and was then promoted to eighth after chief title rival Richard Verschoor has his fastest time deleted for causing a red flag by crashing out.
That cost the MP Motorsport driver second place, while Hitech GP’s Luke Browning scored a maiden pole for Sunday’s feature race ahead of DAMS’ Kush Maini.
Browning’s team-mate Dino Beganovic lined up on pole for the sprint race, and he converted it into the lead at the start ahead of Trident’s Sami Megatounif. Fornaroli quickly pounced to take second away from Megatounif, and soon the safety car was deployed after Maini was forced off the road by Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne at Curve Grande and spun into retirement.
Fornaroli tried to snatch the lead at the restart but locked up and missed the first chicane, and he handed the place back to Beganovic after intially rejoining in front of him, while Megatounif was passed for third by Campos Racing’s Lindblad.
It didn’t take long for Fornaroli to get another opportunity, as three laps later used his DRS to sweep past Beganovic, who soon also lost out to Lindblad.
Dunne, meanwhile, grabbed seventh a turn one with a late move on Fornaroli’s team-mate Roman Stanek, who was forced off the road. The McLaren junior soon pulled the same move on Meganatounif, who had by this stage slipped to sixth, but the pair collided on the exit of the first chicane and both had a trip through the gravel. Megatounif retired in the pitlane with damage, while Dunne tumbled out of points-scoring contention.
There was a late virtual safety car period when Trident’s Max Esterson appeared to suffer engine failure, and Lindblad ran wide exiting Ascari chicane in his pursuit of Fornaroli shortly after the track returned to green and slipped out of DRS range, allowing Fornaroli to cruise home with a 1.6-second winning margin.
Beganovic intially took the chequered in third, but was demoted to sixth by a five-second penalty for a VSC infringement. That handed the final podium spot to Duerksen, while Verschoor passed Stanek for in the closing stages and finished fourth.
Verschoor’s team-mate Oliver Goethe had also been in podium contention at one stage, but spun down the order while trying to complete a move past Beganovic.
Prema’s Gabriele Mini fought his way past Browning late on to take seventh, while his team-mate Sebastian Montoya recovered from last on the grid to 10th behind Campos’ Pepe Marti.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
