Liam Lawson clinched a dominant victory in the second Monaco Sprint Race to cut his deficit in the title race down to 11 points, only to be disqualified post-race for a breach of technical rules.
Lawson inherited reverse-pole from his second-placed grid slot in damp conditions only to lose the lead at the start to Oscar Piastri, but eventually got past the Australian driver with inside move at Rascasse at the end of lap five.
Further behind, Carlin’s Dan Ticktum worked his way up to third at the start and snatched second from Piastri on lap 15, only for his shot at victory to disappear after a wide moment at Casino Square on lap 21 as Lawson cruised to victory on track.
Ticktum consequently settled for second ahead of Piastri, Juri Vips, Theo Pourchaire, Ralph Boschung, Richard Verschoor and Lirim Zendeli, who were all promoted a position after Lawson’s disqualification as Jehan Daruvala consequently claimed the last point in eighth.
Championship leader, Guanyu Zhou meanwhile failed to score points after jumping too early from wet to slicks tyres, which forced him to revert back to the wet tyres as he finished 16th and last of the classified finishers.
Lawson however was disqualified just three hours later after being found to have used a illegal throttle map at the race start, instead of the programmed map in position one of the steering wheel.
Ticktum therefore was awarded victory which put him up to second in the standings behind Zhou, whilst PREMA’s Robert Shwartzman was elevated up to tenth and therefore is awarded two points for fastest lap after initially finishing 11th and ineligible for the fastest lap points.
Zhou therefore now leads the standings from Ticktum by 18 points with Piastri a further four points back in third ahead of Lawson who has dropped to fourth as a consequence.
Reverse-pole sitter, Marcus Armstrong stopped at Rascasse with a technical issue on his way to the grid, which forced the New Zealander to start from the pit-lane and gave Lawson pole position albeit from his second-placed grid slot.
Overnight rain was replaced by sunshine on a damp grid which benefitted Piastri who got a strong start to take the lead ahead of Lawson and Ticktum, with the Brit also jumping two positions by virtue of starting on the drier side of the track.
Lawson however had more confidence than Piastri and was able to keep the PREMA driver within sight in the opening laps, before launching his Hitech car up the inside of Rascasse on lap five to snatch the lead and ultimately victory.
SO. SO. GOOOOOD. 🤩
The overtake for the win on the slippery streets of Monaco! Bravo, @liam_lawson30 👏#MonacoGP 🇲🇨 #F2 pic.twitter.com/lX5YZmreEt
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) May 22, 2021
Further behind the frontrunners, Gianluca Petecof suffered a second crash of the weekend, after he was nudged into the barriers at Sainte Devote by Marino Sato on the opening lap to end his race prematurely.
Armstrong also retired at that corner two laps later as his mechanical issue eventually overwhelmed the DAMS car, despite starting from the pit-lane.
The Kiwi however wouldn’t be the last driver to retire at Sainte Devote as karma got Sato on lap 10 for his first lap incident, with the Trident driver running wide then stalling his engine.
Piastri soon found himself fending off Ticktum until the Brit dived up the inside of the Aussie into Nouvelle Chicane to claim second, and quickly reeled in Lawson as the conditions swung in Ticktum’s favour.
ART GP’s Christian Lundgaard became the latest casualty after running deep at Mirabeau and stalling his engine, which put him out of the race again after an engine failure cost him in the opening sprint race.
Ticktum meanwhile had managed to get the gap to Lawson down to one second by lap 21, only to run wide at Casino Square which cost him any shot at victory as he settled for second on his worn wet tyres.
Further back, Boschung drove a lonely race in sixth until his wet tyres began to fade but he found himself the cork in a bottle of cars behind him, as Roy Nissany ran wide at Nouvelle Chicane trying to pass the Swiss driver.
Nissany eventually saw a points finish disappear after he struck the wall on exit of Saint Devote on lap 23, just two laps before Bent Viscaal got sent spinning on entry to that corner by David Beckmann after a clip of his rear by the German.
Beckmann retired on the spot as Viscaal recovered to finish 12th with the safety car called out, which sent the race to time as Lawson clung on for what was initially his second win of this season prior to his qualification.
Drivers will now prepare for a 42 lap Feature Race which is scheduled to take place later today (22 May 2021) at 4:15pm UK Time.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | 28 | 47m 53.826 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | 28 | + 0.765 |
| 3 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | 28 | + 1.172 |
| 4 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 28 | + 2.101 |
| 5 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | 28 | + 6.298 |
| 6 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 28 | + 8.381 |
| 7 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | 28 | + 13.384 |
| 8 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | 28 | + 15.894 |
| 9 | Jack Aitken | HWA Racelab | 28 | + 16.310 |
| 10 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | 28 | + 39.225 |
| 11 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | 28 | + 1m 03.889 |
| 12 | Alessio Deledda | HWA Racelab | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| 13 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| 14 | Felipe Drugovich | UNI-Virtuosi | 26 | + 2 Laps |
| 15 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | 26 | + 2 Laps |
| RET | David Beckmann | Charouz | 23 | Collision |
| RET | Roy Nissany | DAMS | 22 | Suspension |
| RET | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | 16 | Technical |
| RET | Marino Sato | Trident | 9 | Technical |
| RET | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | 2 | Driveshaft |
| RET | Gianluca Petecof | Campos | 0 | Collision |
| DSQ | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 28 | Technical |
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