Formula 2: Dennis Hauger takes first win

As Formula 1 qualifying ended with a huge blockage at the 8th corner of the Monaco circuit, it took some time to get it right. In addition, the cars stuck there were not immediately delivered to the pit lane, causing the start of Saturday’s F2 sprint to be delayed by 25 minutes.

Perhaps this somehow affected the mood of the participants, and we didn’t see much intrigue in what happened at 30 laps of the race.

Jake Hughes, a 27-year-old Van Amersfoort Racing driver, was due to start from pole position, but Dennis Hauger of the Prema team was on the front row, leading the race as the Briton simply stalled at the start. Fortunately no one bumped into him, everyone could get around his Dallara, which was then rolled back to the pitlane.

So Hauger took the lead, he was chased by Jehan Daruwala, a partner of Norwegian Marcus Armstrong who held the third position.

And then the next surprise happened: the youth championship leader, Felipe Drugovic, who started the race from 9th position, turned into the pits after two laps because it seemed to him that it was starting to drizzle. His example was followed by several other riders who also preferred to switch to intermediate tires straight away, even though the track was more or less dry.

And after another circle, Drugovich again returned to the pits to put slicks back in – this tactic can hardly be called successful. But the story didn’t end there: As soon as he returned to the fight, the team called him again, this time to file a pitlane speeding ticket. Then, after another lap, he usually left the race — or so it seemed at the time.

On lap 8 Hauger was nearly two seconds ahead of his partner, Daruwala was chased by Armstrong but Enzo Fittipaldi, who was in 4th place, was already six and a half seconds behind the New Zealander and clearly held off everyone else.

But already on the tenth lap the gaps were closed, because in the area of ​​the 19th corner Clement Novalak’s car also stopped after contact with Ayumu Iwasa. As a result, Bernd Maylander, the safety car driver, had to leave the pits in his Mercedes.

The stewards began investigating the incident between Novalak and Iwasa and the Japanese DAMS racer went into the pit lane himself to replace the front wing, which had been damaged in the incident.

Oddly enough, Drugovic returned to the track, albeit five laps behind, probably for training purposes.

On lap 14 the fight resumed, the top five held their positions but Fittipaldi immediately tried to attack Armstrong, probably dreaming of a podium in Monaco. But he failed to overtake the experienced New Zealander.

But Drugovic returned to the pit lane after a lap for another speeding ticket, not because he is such a malicious violator, but because MP Motorsport turned out to have set the Pit Limiter – the speed limiter – incorrectly. It all ended with Felipe coming out anyway.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that the stewards awarded Iwasa a 10-second penalty and recognized him as the culprit of the accident, prompting Novalak to get out.

Two-thirds of the way behind, the top ten looked like this: Hauger – Daruvala – Armstrong – Fittipaldi – Vips – Purscher – Duane – Lawson – Nissani – Sargent.

There was no overtaking at all, no one dared to take risks on the track, known for being relentless to mistakes. At the same time, Hauger, who wanted to protect himself from the attacks of rivals, brought the gap to five seconds and rode calmly to the finish. In addition, he became the author of the fastest lap of this stage of the race.

Admittedly, this feat was soon blocked by Armstrong, who added to escape from Fittipaldi, who followed him – five laps from the finish, the New Zealander was ahead of the representative of the younger generation of the Brazilian racing dynasty for four seconds.

Before a circle before the finish, it became clear that we wouldn’t see a fierce battle, and if someone didn’t make a mistake, the race would end like this. The peloton stretched, there was no overtaking and Dennis Hauger was the first to see the checkered flag and scored his first win in F2 and straight away in Monaco! Basically, why be surprised, as the Norwegian is the reigning Formula 3 champion.

Also on the podium were Jehan Daruwala and Marcus Armstrong. Theo Purscher, who had been the leader in the youth championship before the previous leg, did not have a great race for the third race in a row and today finished only sixth, leaving him second in the individual standings. Even Drugovich’s retirement has not helped him much – there is no particular doubt that the Brazilian will come to Baku as the leader of the series. One thing can stop him: if he doesn’t score at all tomorrow, and Purscher wins. Such a scenario is unlikely, however, as Drugovic will start the weekend’s feature race from pole position, the French driver will start from second position.

Sprint results Saturday