F2: Bortoleto takes great victory in Monza

After Saturday’s F2 sprint in Monza, the position of the leaders in the individual championship has not undergone any significant changes, except that Gabriel Bortoleto earned a bonus point for 8th place and slightly strengthened his position in 2nd place. The leader in the youth championship, Isaac Hadjar, earned no points yesterday and Paul Aron, who occupies the 3rd place, usually finishes in 20th place.

After the finish, the Estonian Hitech driver was also given a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Zane Maloney, driving for Rodin Motorsport. However, he still finished last on track, so the penalty had no effect on the sprint results.

In Sunday’s race, which is considered the most important, it was Maloney who started from pole – for the first time in his career; Hadjar started from the second row and Aron’s car was in third position.

But of course the attention was also on Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whose contract with Mercedes was confirmed yesterday, but in the sprint the Italian Prema driver was unlucky, his car was damaged in a collision at the start, after which a good result could be forgotten. But today Kimi started sixth and this gave him the chance to fight for the podium at least.

Maloney got off to a great start and held the lead, but Aron got off to a great start and broke through to second, but almost immediately, at Turn 1, Pepe Marti hit the Estonian car from behind, sending the Estonian spinning, and it all ended in retirement. Spanish rider Campos was subsequently given a fine for his actions, but that didn’t make Paul feel any better.

An incident at the first corner forced several drivers to cut the first chicane, and in this situation the Prema riders were the best to deal with this situation: Oliver Berman and Antonelli fought their way to 2nd and 3rd positions. The safety car came out, but only stayed on track for one lap, after which the fight resumed.

Maloney was leading, at the restart Berman and Antonelli decided to fight each other, but Oliver maintained second position, after which he chased the black and green car of the driver from the island of Barbados.

Also behind the top three, remarkable events happened: Joshua Duerksen started from 11th position, but was already fighting with Hadjar for 4th place and eventually pushed the leader of the personal classification to 5th position, after which he was able to stay ahead of Antonelli on the 6th lap!

Kimi fought back but could not counter the speed of Durksen, who made very decisive use of the slipstream – a classic technique that works well on Monza’s long straights.

On lap 7, Berman was the first to pit for a mandatory pit stop, and only this saved him from the persistent attacks of Durksen, who went for new tires a lap later – but already together with Maloney and Hajjar.

As they left the pits, yellow flags appeared in the first sector due to Dennis Hauger’s departure at the first chicane – the Norwegian’s car spun as he was pushed by the Ritomo Miata. The safety car soon came out.

Almost everyone else who hadn’t been there yet rushed into the pits. Formula 2 rookie Oliver Goethe, who temporarily led the race, and four other drivers who had made up the top five before the restart, didn’t, but only temporarily, as they all had to make another pit stop.

But Gabriel Bortoleto had already climbed to sixth position, having successfully taken advantage of the safety car exit and changed tires without wasting much time, and this position could well have become first after some time. The Brazilian immediately took action and attacked all those who were not at the pit stop, starting the 12th lap in fourth place, and on the next lap he was ahead of Juan Manuel Correa and climbed to 3rd place. It was clear that he would soon have to deal with Goethe, which happened in the first corner of the 14th lap.

Maini, Bortoleto’s teammate, who had not yet pitted, was in the lead and Maloney occupied the “virtual” second position. A lap later Gabriel was ahead of the Indian racer, and the rest was for him, as they say, a question of technique.

But the Prema drivers, who were in the second five, were unlucky again, as they took turns to become participants in racing incidents, which took them off the track, which clearly affected the state of their cars. On the 17th of the 30 laps, Berman was running seventh, Antonelli eighth.

On the next lap Berman tried to attack Victor Martin, but he fought back. On the same lap Maloney passed Goethe and moved up to third, although passing at the second chicane looked doubtful as Zane had to go off the track. Maloney gave up the position, but then passed his opponent again, but this time “cleanly” to remove all questions.

In this situation, only Bortoleto, who was leading the race, and Maloney could improve their positions in the individual competition, but Hadjar had virtually no chance of earning anything eight laps from the finish; he was only 14th.

On lap 23, Antonelli tried to attack his teammate on the start-finish straight, but Berman acted decisively and made it clear to Kimi that he would not let him pass without a fight. However, the future Mercedes driver did not calm down and on the next lap he was still ahead of the future Haas driver and even forced Oliver to go off the track. As a result, Berman also lost his position to Durksen. At the end of the same lap, Joshua overtook Antonelli and climbed to 6th position, but did not stay there for long.

When Durksen tried to stay ahead of Martin, who was running fifth, he would not let him pass and Joshua had to cut the second chicane, while Antonelli easily passed. Then Kimi got ahead of Martin, having already reached the top five, and gradually started to pull away from his pursuers.

Martin was of course offended that Kimi was ahead of him, but he had no opportunity to counterattack, as he had to fight Durksen, who showed excellent speed on the straights, which simplified the task of getting ahead. In general, Joshua was ahead of Martin a few laps before the finish, after which he quickly overtook Antonelli.

Of course, Kimi was very keen to be on the podium in his home race and started the final lap of the race in fourth place, but as he had to constantly fend off attacks from Durksen, he was unable to overtake Richard Verschor.

But there was no doubt about the victory of Gabriel Bortoleto, who started from the last, 22nd position. According to commentators, the Brazilian McLaren youth program driver achieved the almost impossible today: he crossed the finish line first, and with a lead of more than 9 seconds.

This is only his second win of the season, by the way, but his ability to consistently score points has seen him sit confidently in 2nd place in the personal classification, and today’s success has allowed him to more than halve his lead over the leader. If Hadjar still has 165 points, as he did before the Italian stage of the season, then Bortoleto now has 154.5.

Zane Maloney took second place, Richard Ferschor came third and Antonelli still managed to stay in 4th position and score at least 12 points. In the individual competition, however, he remains only sixth.

The results are being prepared…