Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman drove a controlled race within the Formula 2 sprint at Monza to repeat his earlier sprint success in Austria and take the highest spot on the rostrum for the second time this 12 months.
Starting from eighth, following a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision at Spa-Francorchamps within the last race, Bearman quickly worked his way up the sphere, going wheel-to-wheel with ART driver Victor Martins before taking the lead when Pepe Marti (Campos) locked wheels under braking on the Rettifilo chicane on lap seven.
For the remaining of the race, the Prema driver confidently managed to take care of the advantage over Martins, ending the race with a lead of 1.6 seconds.
As Marti dropped to fourth, Joshua Durksen took his second podium finish of the season, having previously won the trophy within the essential race at Imola.
The race got off to a frantic start when the security automotive got here into motion before the tip of the primary lap. On the approach to the Rettifilo chicane, Zak O'Sullivan (ART) crossed the track in a bunch and collided with the rear of rookie Oliver Goethe (MP Motorsport) – the German replacing latest Williams F1 driver Franco Colapinto.
As O'Sullivan slowly got here to a halt, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema) was caught up within the chaos and suffered serious front-end damage, but returned to the pits in 18th place.
Isack Hadjar (Campos) got here into Monza with a 41-point lead over rival Paul Aron (Hitech), who’s third overall, but he struggled in a difficult sprint for much of the race, ending thirteenth attributable to a delayed start.
Aron made a much stronger start and was running in seventh, attempting to move up the rankings when an excessively ambitious move to overtake essential race pole sitter Zane Maloney damaged his front wing and sent him to the back of the sphere.
Second within the title fight is Gabriel Bortoleto, who has recovered brilliantly from a qualifying crash that saw him drop to the back of the grid in each races, ending eighth.
However, when he and Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) crossed the road level, the FIA ​​awarded each driver half a degree and classified each in eighth place. That reduced Hadjar's title advantage to 35.5 points.
But with Aron and Hadjar set to complete second and third within the essential race, Bortoleto will face a much tougher challenge on Sunday to limit the damage.
The challenge for Bearman in a difficult season was that the victory moved him up to only 44 points and 14th overall – a whopping 121 points behind the leader.
Monza – sprint race
