Monaco Grand Prix: F2 Feature Race Results

Monaco Grand Prix: F2 Feature Race Results

Round Five of Formula 2’s 2024 season saw the young drivers race around the streets of Monte Carlo in an action-packed weekend

Abby Bathurst 7 min read

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F2 returned to the streets of Monte Carlo for the Feature Race today, which proved to be action-packed and resulted in a change in the championship lead.

Monaco Grand Prix: F2 Feature Race Results
Richard Verschoor looks on in the Pitlane after retiring from the race during the Round 5 Monte Carlo Feature race of the F2 Championship. (Photo by Joe Portlock – Formula 1/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images)

Round Five of the Formula 2 2024 season has provided action all weekend. With Monaco being a street circuit, F2’s practice session took place on Thursday and it was Victor Martins who topped the timesheets.

Qualifying saw Richard Verschoor and Martins top their respective groups but it was the Trident driver who took pole position for the Feature Race. Yesterday’s Sprint Race saw a maiden victory for Taylor Barnard, despite two Safety Cars, a Virtual Safety Car and a Red Flag.

However, today’s race was longer and required a pitstop. It was Verschoor and Martins on the front row, followed by:

So with the F2 grid set and expectations high, let’s get into what happened during the F2 Feature Race around Monaco that saw Zak O’Sullivan ace the strategy to take his maiden F2 win.

Lights Out

The tyre strategies for the Feature Race included a mixture of the soft and supersoft compounds. Gabriel Bortoleto was the first driver on the alternate strategy of the supersofts as well as Enzo Fittipaldi, Oliver Bearman, Zane Maloney, Amaury Cordeel, Jak Crawford and Pepe Martí.

When the lights went out, Verschoor had a good launch off the line and kept the lead into Sainte Devote. Unfortunately, Martins was swamped and his chances of his first podium this season disappeared immediately as he fell back to 14th.

Going into the hairpin, Crawford was shuffled into the barriers after contact with Kush Maini. The American driver fell down the order and was recovered from the track after being unable to continue racing. No yellow flags of Safety Cars were brought out, which is a testament to the marshals at Monaco. This incident was noted but there was no further investigation.

Bearman had a good opening lap as he was able to make up five places, getting into P7. Dennis Hauger was overtaken by Bearman, the supersofts coming into fruition, but Bortoleto then followed getting ahead of the MP Motorsport driver.

Whilst Verschoor led the race, his teammate, Roman Stanek, reported dry ice falling from Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s PREMA. Antonelli, at the time, was in fifth. For Verschoor though, he wasn’t able to create a gap between himself and Isack Hadjar in P2 as the Campos Racing driver remained within DRS.

On lap nine, Cordeel trundled back to the pits. The Belgian driver changed tyres to the soft-compound, but after inspecting the suspension, he retired from the race.

Meanwhile, Antonelli was chasing Franco Colapinto, but given the limited overtaking opportunities, the battle for fourth continued for a few laps.

Pitstops and battles begin

The first driver to come into the pits and head back out again was Martí. The Spanish driver exited the pits in P20 sporting the soft tyres.

Lap 14 focused on Antonelli still chasing Colapinto for P4. The Williams Academy driver made a slight error out of the final corner, but Antonelli couldn’t quite get past. Antonelli then radioed that Colapinto ran across the Nouvelle Chicane.

Antonelli’s teammate, Bearman, was in seventh. However, Bortoleto was given the instruction to close the gap to the British driver, making his way into DRS range. Further back, the current championship leader, Maloney, pitted and switched onto the softs, but had a lot of positions to make up to get back into the points.

Fittipaldi was the third of the supersoft drivers to come into the pits. The Van Amersfoort driver came out just ahead of Martí in 18th. Bearman was under pressure from Bortoleto and a small DRS train behind him, but he peeled into the pits.

The PREMA driver returned to the track in 17th, ahead of Martí, Fittipaldi and Maloney. Bortoleto marked off what Bearman did, pitting one lap later. The Invicta Virtuosi driver came out in P16 ahead of Bearman, however, Bearman was able to get ahead due to warmer tyres.

Issues with the lead and teammate battles

Verschoor radioed to his team that he was breaking down and slowed down on track. Coming out of the tunnel, he then ran over the chicane, keeping the lead. This, however, was noted by Race Control.

Alex Brundle, one of the commentators, said he thinks Verschoor was jockeying a temperature issue. Verschoor’s gap to Hadjar reduced and the Campos driver was once again within DRS.

At the same time, Rafael Villagomez came into the pits with a damaged front wing. VAR changed out the front wing and his tyres as well. The replay showed that Villagomez hit the wall.

Stanek, Aron and Antonelli, all on the soft-compound tyres, then came into the pits on lap 22. Hadjar soon followed suit.

Antonelli came out of the pits ahead of Bearman on fresher tyres, but it was a close battle between the two. Bearman did a switcharoo in the hairpin, getting ahead of his teammate to take P13. Aron was in 12th.

Hadjar came out on track in 10th, ahead of Aron, and Colapinto came out of the pits in 12th. This meant the Argentinian driver had the advantage over Antonelli.

Verschoor came into the pits as well, but it was a slow stop. However, despite the delay, the Dutch driver kept the net lead of the race, coming out ahead of Hadjar.

Going through the tunnel, Hadjar attempted to close the gap to Verschoor and overtake him into the Nouvelle Chicane. Aron was close behind, followed by Bearman, but down to Sainte Devote on lap 25, Hadjar overtook Verschoor.

Aron tried to replicate what Hadjar achieved, but Aron and Verschoor both cut across the chicane. The Hitech Grand Prix driver eventually got ahead of Verschoor, who still seemed to be struggling with decreasing power.

From Verschoor in 11th to Stanek in P19 was a DRS train. Bearman finally managed to get ahead of Verschoor on lap 27, scraping the wall in the battle with the Trident driver. Out of all the drivers to have pitted so far, the top three were Hadjar, Aron and Bearman – the former two on the Supersofts.

A penalty was then issued for Verschoor. He was given a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Final 12 laps

On lap 29, Verschoor came into the pits to serve his penalty. He came back out on the soft-compound tyres and was at the back of the pack.

Unfortunately, he was then told to “retire the car”. The replay shows that when he came into the pits, he threw the steering wheel out of the car before coming to a complete stop. Race Control noted this for a pitlane infringement.

Those who began the race on the soft tyres began coming into the pits. However, Hauger, in P1, was sticking it out for as long as he could, much like Zak O’Sullivan, Martins and Durksen.

Juan Manuel Correa pitted and came out just behind Bearman. This strategy put him ahead of Colapinto and Antonelli, in theory in fourth.

On lap 32, with 10 laps left, Hauger came in to do his mandatory stop. The Norwegian driver came out on the supersoft tyres, and returned to the track, side by side with Correa, who eventually got ahead of the MP driver.

Antonelli was once again told to put Colapinto under pressure to force him into a mistake. With Antonelli chasing the MP Motorsport driver, Bearman was under pressure from Correa, who was right on the back of his PREMA car.

Coming out of the tunnel, Bearman cut across the chicane and struggled to keep his position ahead of the DAMs driver.

Further back, Maloney and Durksen made contact going into the hairpin. Also, Hadjar, who was in fourth, scraped the wall but there was no damage inflicted upon his car.

The battle between Antonelli and Colapinto reached the end on lap 38 when Antonelli got ahead coming into the final corner. Bortoleto then followed suit, as did Maloney, dropping Colapinto down to 12th.

Final stages of the race

An incident then occurred between Fittipaldi and Barnard. Yesterday’s race winner was hit slightly by Fittipaldi, but thankfully, the two driver were able to carry on. This followed a brief collision between Colapinto and Barnard, which was noted.

Joshua Durksen, who was in P2, could wait no longer and came into the pits on lap 40.

Yellow flags were then brought out in Sector 1 and 2. O’Sullivan came into the pits under the yellow flags, just before the Virtual Safety Car. The flags were brought out due to Durksen crashing, having not seen Maloney, who flew into the air.

However, for O’Sullivan, it was the perfect gamble. The British driver came out of the pits ahead of Hadjar and in P1.

With the green flags flying once again, it was O’Sullivan in the lead but Hadjar was in DRS range. Unfortunately for Hadjar, he wasn’t able to get ahead and expressed his frustration over the radio.

But for O’Sullivan, the gamble was worth it and the Williams Junior Driver achieved his first F2 victory after making 15 positions.

Final results

After 42 laps around the streets of Monaco, four drivers failed to finish the F2 Feature Race. With Verschoor, Villagomez, Cordeel and Crawford out of the race, the top 10 were:

1 – Zak O’Sullivan

2 – Isack Hadjar

3 – Paul Aron

4 – Oliver Bearman

5 – Juan Manuel Correa

6 – Kimi Antonelli

7 – Gabriel Bortoleto

8 – Victor Martins

10 – Zane Maloney

After today’s race the F2 Championship Standings have also changed with Paul Aron now in the lead.

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