Jehan Daruvala has become the 12th different winner of the 2022 Formula 2 season after taking the Feature race win in Monza.
The podium included ART Grand Prix’s Fredrick Vesti who has his second P2 finish of the weekend and Ayumu Iwasa for DAMS, who struggled with pace but kept position due to his race-craft.
Pole-sitter Jack Doohan started the race despite stalling on the grid as the field started the formation lap, before reporting clutch problems which was eventually identified as steering wheel issue.
He was able to get going before the last car past him on the grid, allowing him to resume his pole position.
The Virtousi Driver then had a poor start at lights out, being overtaken by eight cars before he found himself in a collision at Variante Della Roggia with Prema Racing’s Daruvala and Logan Sargeant on Lap 1.
Both Doohan and Sargeant ended up with a DNF whilst Daruvala went on to take the race victory.
That followed a collision into Retifilo at the race start which accounted for ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire, both Campos drivers Olli Caldwell and Ralph Boschung, and Luca Ghiotto, who was subbing for DAMS this weekend.
All four were forced out as a result of the incident.
The Safety Car was called before the end of the opening lap to clear the wreckage from the two separate clashes.
Soon after the field was released, Calan Williams found the barrier at the Ascari chicane on Lap 8, bringing out the second Safety Car of the race.
This allowed all the drivers on the soft compound drivers to take their mandatory pit stop on Lap 8.
A red flag was called on the next lap to recover Williams’ car, the race resuming 10 minutes later with a rolling start that Richard Verschoor led.
The Trident driver was pulled into have his mandatory pit stop on Lap 26 and finished the race in the last point scoring position, also taking a bonus point for Fastest Lap.
During the red flag, Marcus Armstrong was given a 10 second penalty for failing to follow director’s instructions for his pit lane entry under the Safety Car.
This incident included him crossing over the wrong side of the pit lane bollard then failing to slow down enough for the pit lane exit, making the Hitech driver accrue another 10 second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
The winner of the Sprint Race yesterday, Hitech’s Juri Vips, was also given a 10 sec stop-go penalty for causing a collision with Liam Lawson after spinning the Kiwi around at the Variante Della Roggia.
Lawson was waved the black and orange flag for the front wing damage caused from this collision on Lap 16, he closed out his weekend in 14th and last of the remaining runners.
Champion-elect Felipe Drugovich finished in a reserved seventh position after moving through when Van Amersfoort driver Amaury Cordeel dipped a wheel into the gravel at Turn 7 on Lap 26.
Tatiana Cauldron did not start the race due to medical grounds after a collision with Caldwell in the Sprint Race.
FIA F2 will have a two month break until the last round in Abu Dhabi around Yas Marina Circuit on Nov 18 – 20.
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