DAMS driver Kush Maini led home fellow Alpine junior Gabriele Mini to win the Formula 2 sprint race on the streets of Monte Carlo
Prema’s Mini filled the mirrors of Maini’s car early on but eventually faded following a mid-race safety car period, while Hitech GP’s Luke Browning profited from a penalty for Arvid Lindblad to complete the podium.
Having been 10th quickest in Friday’s qualifying, Maini lined up from reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s contest. He led away at the start, while Browning made a poor getaway from the outside of the front row and slipped to fifth.
Mini climbed to second ahead of Maini’s team-mate Jak Crawford and Campos Racing’s Lindblad, but a lap one collision allowed Browning to recover one place to fourth.
Lindblad dived to the inside of Crawford to snatch third into Mirabeau, but contact between the pair resulted in a frustrated Crawford dropping to fifth and Lindblad eventually receiving a 10-second penalty.
Mini applied pressure on Maini for the first 11 laps before the safety car was deployed due to AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen stopping on circuit with suspension damage shortly after clashing with MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe.
The front two remained close once the track returned to green, but Mini lost three seconds over the course of one lap in the closing stages, and Maini cruised home from there to score his second F2 victory by 3.7s
Trying to create a gap in front of him so that he could then push later on to try and offset his penalty, Lindblad dropped well behind the leaders before and after the safety car intervention. The Red Bull junior was only able to pull 4s clear of Browning before the chequered flag and was relegated five places to eighth in the classification.
Crawford came home 3s adrift of Browning in fourth, with MP’s Richard Verschoor and Prema’s Sebastian Montoya finishing close behind him. Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli edged out Lindblad to seventh by 0.5s.
After being involved in a second collision with ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins, who was forced to pit for a new front wing, Goethe was eventually penalised 10s, dropping from ninth to 11th.
Rodin Motorsport’s points leader Alex Dunne moved up to ninth as a result, but the McLaren junior will start from pole in Sunday’s feature race having been quickest in qualifying. ART’s Ritomo Miyata rounded out the top 10.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
