F2: Berman wins race, Purscher increases title chances

Sunday’s Formula 2 race at Monza was started by Theo Purscher, leader of the youth series individual classification, from pole position. It is she who is considered the most important, and the points in it are awarded in full.

At the same time, Theo, who plays for the ART team, only managed one win this season, while Frederic Vesti, his main rival in the title fight, climbed to the top of the podium for the fifth time yesterday, but he Maybe he had bad luck more often, which led to this kind of imbalance. Looking ahead, let’s say he was unlucky today.

On Friday, Purscher won Monza qualifying and was determined to take full advantage of this advantage as the Dane only started from 8th position.

Theo got off to a good start but was immediately attacked by Oliver Berman, a Prema driver and Ferrari Academy student, who pressed hard in the first corners and took the lead before the second chicane. But even more important events took place behind the leading group, and their victim was none other than Frederick Vesti.

He had an excellent start, beating several rivals and on the verge of reaching the top five, but Victor Marten charged ahead of him, pushing Roman Stanek out of third on the way.

The car of the Czech rider of the Trident team destabilized, he tried to control it, but probably at that moment he saw that Vesti passed him on the right. Stanek decided at the last minute not to let him pass, Frederik had to swerve, the right wheels of his car were on the side of the road and it all ended with a U-turn and hitting the barrier. This race was over for him and his chances of the title plummeted.

The safety car took off so marshals could evacuate Prema’s damaged Dallara, but the race resumed on lap 4.

At the restart Berman kept the lead, Purscher followed, he was chased by Marten and Stanek, who was responsible for Frederik Vesti’s retirement, took 4th position. Naturally, the stewards have already started investigating that annoying incident.

On lap 7, the race was again neutralized by yellow flags and another safety car run, this time due to the departure of Arthur Leclerc, the Ferrari driver’s younger brother. It seemed that he had made a mistake braking before the first corner, but on this episode’s replay it was clear that the brakes were not locked: his car just went straight ahead, he turned and drove into the safety zone. where it got stuck. It is possible that this was due to some technical issues.

Most of the riders took advantage of the situation and went to the pits to change tires, including the leaders. But as Purscher and Berman exited the pits, their cars almost collided in the pit lane, and the stewards paid attention to this – they had to decide whether the drivers’ actions were careless and unsafe.

It was then that their other decision became known: the stewards gave Stanek a 5-second penalty for causing an accident through his actions that led to Frederik Vesti’s retirement.

At the restart, the top five looked like this: Jehan Daruwala had moved up to first position, Jack Duane followed him, Ayumu Iwasa was in third position, Isaac Hajar was in fourth position, but none of them had done so yet. been in the pits.

Berman temporarily closed out the top five, followed by Pursher.

On the restart, Duane and Iwasa started a battle with Daruwala, and the Japanese rider DAMS emerged victorious from this battle. However, in the depths of the pack, a serious accident occurred – Zane Maloney’s car was knocked off the track, and all this happened on the start and finish straight, when everyone had already reached high speed.

It seems that Roy Nissany crashed into Maloney’s car from behind, causing it to flip over, turning Zane, as they say, into a passenger, as he no longer had any influence over what happened. The impact energy on the barriers was very severe, the Carlin racer’s car was broken, and after he got out of the cockpit, he was clearly limping.

Naturally, a safety car pulled out for the third time, and its driver, Bernd Maylander, had to lead the pack through the pit lane while marshals worked on the start-finish line and eliminated the fallout from Maloney’s accident.

By the time the safety car returned to the pits, 15 of the race’s 30 laps were behind us. The order of the top five changed: Berman was in the lead, Duane was second, until he made a mandatory pit stop, Purscher was third.

On the restart, Berman held onto the lead and created a one-lap lead over Duane of over a second. Purscher was in no hurry to overtake the Australian for two reasons: firstly, Jack will still go to the pit stop, and secondly, he is far from Theo’s main rival in the title fight. However, already in the next round, the Frenchman attacked, which Duane beat off, but even after one round Purscher surpassed him. By this time, Berman managed to extend the lead to 2.6 seconds.

On lap 19 everyone noticed that the DRS system on Victor Martin’s car was left open, which is a violation. At the same time, he was running fifth, and the stewards showed him a black-orange flag – that’s why he had to go to the pits, where the ART team tried to do something. But it turned out that the DRS could not be repaired and the frustrated driver left the cockpit.

Meanwhile, the stewards, who investigated the incident at the restart, concluded that Nissan’s fault in that accident was obvious, and the Israeli was fined for driving through the pit lane.

On lap 23 Kush Maini attacked Jack Crawford for 5th position but the American moved out of the way to prevent his opponent from taking the lead, there was contact between the cars and the Campos Dallara was out of the track with a broken front fender and front end . delay.

Mailander had to recapture the red Mercedes AMG GT, which served as the FIA ​​safety car on the Italian stage, and when the race resumed there were only four laps to go before the finish.

Berman restarted confidently and kept the lead, but Ayumu Iwasa managed to stay ahead of Theo Pursher with a daring maneuver to push the individual classification leader into third position. The Frenchman did not give up and tried to counterattack the opponent, but to no avail. In addition, he was attacked by Richard Fershhor in the next round and Theo had to act decisively not to miss the Dutchman.

On the same lap, Jack Duane overtook Juan Manuel Correa and moved up to 7th position, but in the second ten there was contact between the cars of Stanek and Crawford, sending the American off the track at the Ascari chicane, and it all ended with pension.

For the fifth time in the race, the safety car departed and it became clear that she would finish in this mode – much to the disappointment of both her competitors and the fans in the Monza stands. Formally, the track battle resumed on the last lap with one corner to go, but of course this wasn’t what everyone wanted to see.

Even race winner Oliver Berman, who achieved such success for the fourth time this season, complained on the radio that the safety car went out too often. But this hardly stopped him from rejoicing at the victory, and Ayumu Iwase, who unexpectedly took second place, from celebrating his achievement. But Theo Purscher, who took third place, probably wasn’t particularly sad either, as he not only kept the lead in the individual standings, but also increased his lead over Frederic Vesti by another 16 points, as he was also the author of the best lap of the race.

Before the final stage of the season, to be held in Abu Dhabi at the end of November, Pursher has 191 points, Vesti has 166 more, but Iwasa was so happy because he got close to him – now the Japanese rider has 152 points.

Racing results