Guanyu Zhou extended his championship lead after dominating the opening Monaco Sprint Race to take his second race win of this season.
Zhou made an excellent start from reverse-grid pole and comfortably survived an early challenge from Christian Lundgaard, until an engine failure forced his title rival to retire on lap 15.
A crash for Gianluca Petecof on lap 24 triggered a safety car but Zhou made a strong restart to cruise to victory from his UNI-Virtuosi teammate, Felipe Drugovich who finished second in an one-two finish for the Attleborough, Norfolk based team.
DAMS’ Roy Nissany benefitted from Lundgaard’s retirement to claim his maiden F2 podium in third, ahead of Campos’ Ralph Boschung who clinched his best-ever F2 result in fourth.
Juri Vips, Dan Ticktum, Theo Pourchaire, Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson complete the top nine, as Marcus Armstrong snatched tenth and reverse-pole for tomorrow morning’s (22 May) second Sprint Race from Jehan Daruvala’s grasp with a late move into the final corner.
Zhou now holds a 26 point lead over Lawson in the standings, as Ticktum climbed to fourth to put himself five points behind his Carlin teammate – Daruvala after just four races.
As the start lights went out, Zhou made an excellent start to breeze away into the lead ahead of Lundgaard, who made an inside move on Drugovich into Sainte Devote to take second place.
Lundgaard was thereafter able to keep Zhou within a second for the opening five laps as the field largely held station, except for Robert Shwartzman who retired with race-ending damage following a mistake at Casino Square.
Six of the top eight in Zhou, Lundgaard, Drugovich, Nissany, Vips and Pourchaire soon found themselves trading fastest laps throughout the opening stages, although Ticktum joined the fight later in the race.
Lap 13 however was the beginning of the end of Lundgaard’s race after smoke began smouldering from his ART car, and he was forced to retire at Mirabeau two laps later which ultimately set the top nine in stone for remainder of the race.
Armstrong however spent the majority of this race fighting Daruvala for tenth and reverse pole which was briefly halted when the Safety Car was deployed on lap 25 following a crash for Petecof at exit of the swimming pool chicane a lap earlier.
Once racing resumed on lap 28, Zhou comfortably sprinted his way to victory from Drugovich and Nissany who both survived tyre warm-up issues to fend off Boschung.
Armstrong eventually snatched tenth after diving to the inside of Rascasse which gave him the inside line for Anthony Noghes corner, sweeping past Daruvala to snatch reverse pole for the second Sprint Race.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | 30 | 44m 21.272 |
| 2 | Felipe Drugovich | UNI-Virtuosi | 30 | + 2.396 |
| 3 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | 30 | + 5.909 |
| 4 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | 30 | + 7.430 |
| 5 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | 30 | + 11.007 |
| 6 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | 30 | + 11.495 |
| 7 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 30 | + 13.247 |
| 8 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | 30 | + 15.247 |
| 9 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 30 | + 17.514 |
| 10 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | 30 | + 18.947 |
| 11 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | 30 | + 19.290 |
| 12 | David Beckmann | Charouz | 30 | + 19.546 |
| 13 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 30 | + 19.915 |
| 14 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | 30 | + 20.234 |
| 15 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | 30 | + 20.755 |
| 16 | Jack Aitken | HWA Racelab | 30 | + 21.168 |
| 17 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | 30 | + 21.873 |
| 18 | Alessio Deledda | HWA Racelab | 29 | + 1 Lap |
| 19 | Marino Sato | Trident | 27 | + 2 Laps |
| RET | Gianluca Petecof | Campos | 23 | Crash |
| RET | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | 14 | Engine |
| Ret | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | 2 | Damage |
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