Roundup of the penultimate round of 2023 F2 season at Monza, Italy.
Theo Pourchaire and Frederik Vesti entered this round both chasing the title lead to take into the season finale in late November, yet contrasting fortunes saw one driver leave with an uphill fight on his hands.
PREMA and Trident meanwhile both looked to impress on home soil with one team managing to do a rare double with their two drivers.
Now, here is a full roundup of a hectic penultimate round of the 2023 F2 season.
Practice
MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger set the initial pace of 1m 35.012 but his lap was deleted after he exceeded track limits, but improved to 1m 34.611 to head teammate, Jehan Daruvala.
Roman Stanek and Oliver Bearman soon displaced the pair with Bearman soon having headed Victor Martins and Arthur Leclerc during the opening runs.
Martins however continued to find lap time and topped the session with 1m 33.165 ahead of Ayumu Iwasa and Richard Verschoor, as title leader – Theo Pourchaire found himself fourth ahead of Zane Maloney at the checkered flag.
Hauger meanwhile spun out at the Parabolica at the end of the session to prevent further improvement in lap times.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 1m 33.165 |
| 2 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | + 0.279 |
| 3 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | + 0.297 |
| 4 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.303 |
| 5 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | + 0.436 |
| 6 | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | + 0.534 |
| 7 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.548 |
| 8 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | + 0.549 |
| 9 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | + 0.556 |
| 10 | Kush Maini | Campos | + 0.577 |
| 11 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | + 0.625 |
| 12 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.631 |
| 13 | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | + 0.7759 |
| 14 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | + 0.802 |
| 15 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | + 0.803 |
| 16 | Roman Stanek | Trident | + 0.929 |
| 17 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 1.055 |
| 18 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | + 1.128 |
| 19 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | + 1.140 |
| 20 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | + 1.279 |
| 21 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | + 1.377 |
| 22 | Joshua Mason | PHM Racing | + 2.020 |
Qualifying
A quiet start to the session saw everyone hold back in fear of setting a slipstream until Stanek posted 1m 32.812 as the benchmark time, which triggered a flurry of fast laps which saw Pourchaire head Martins and Bearman as everyone pitted at the end of their opening runs.
Everyone however decided to do just one flying lap at the end as the checkered flag fell, which meant that Maini, Verschoor, Doohan, Manuel Correa and Mason failed to cross the line in time.
Pourchaire meanwhile did enough for pole with his first run as many failed to improve but Stanek jumped up to third, whilst Boschung went tenth fastest and secured reverse-pole for the Sprint.
The championship leader consequently secured his second Feature Race pole of the season ahead of Bearman, Stanek, Hadjar, Martins, Maini, Crawford, Vesti, Verschoor and Boschung.
Pourchaire also extended his title lead over Vesti to 14 points with the two bonus points for pole position.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 1m 32.328 |
| 2 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | + 0.159 |
| 3 | Roman Stanek | Trident | + 0.206 |
| 4 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | + 0.207 |
| 5 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 0.210 |
| 6 | Kush Maini | Campos | + 0.214 |
| 7 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.229 |
| 8 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | + 0.271 |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | + 0.312 |
| 10 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.327 |
| 11 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | + 0.421 |
| 12 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | + 0.424 |
| 13 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | + 0.481 |
| 14 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | + 0.520 |
| 15 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | + 0.555 |
| 16 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | + 0.792 |
| 17 | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | + 0.860 |
| 18 | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | + 0.882 |
| 19 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | + 0.941 |
| 20 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | + 1.073 |
| 21 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 1.146 |
| 22 | Joshua Mason | PHM Racing | + 2.057 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Boschung locked up at Variante della Roggia and cut down the escape road and rejoined fourth, whilst Vesti cleared Verschoor for the lead through Curva Grande whilst Maloney spun Cordeel out at Ascari on the opening lap.
Racing resumed on Lap 5 after the Safety Car period ended with Vesti in the lead as Boschung rapidly sunk out of the top ten with flatspotted medium tyres.
Martins meanwhile cleared Maini as Pourchaire passed Hadjar and Crawford for fifth.
Martins eventually passed Verschoor on Lap 12 for second as the Safety Car came out after Nissany spun out at Turn 4.
Vesti held off Martins and Verschoor on the restart on Lap 16 as the top three held position to the chekered flag, ahead of Pourchaire, Maini, Bearman, Leclerc and Stanek who rounded out the top eight.
His win meant that Vesti’s title deficit to Pourchaire was down to 12 points as Iwasa, Martins and Doohan rounded out the top five in the standings.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | 30 | 40m 18.006 |
| 2 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 30 | + 0.556 |
| 3 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | 30 | + 0.996 |
| 4 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 30 | + 1.754 |
| 5 | Kush Maini | Campos | 30 | + 3.939 |
| 6 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | 30 | + 6.372 |
| 7 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | 30 | + 7.202 |
| 8 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 30 | + 8.709 |
| 9 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | 30 | + 9.428 |
| 10 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 30 | + 10.155 |
| 11 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | 30 | + 10.539 |
| 12 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 30 | + 10.728 |
| 13 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 30 | + 11.181 |
| 14 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | 30 | + 11.477 |
| 15 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | 30 | + 13.819 |
| 16 | Joshua Mason | PHM Racing | 30 | + 16.288 |
| 17 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | 30 | + 18.903 |
| 18 | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | 30 | + 21.976 |
| 19 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | 30 | + 24.194 |
| RET | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 12 | Engine |
| RET | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | 11 | Crash |
| RET | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | 0 | Crash |
Feature Race
At lights out, Pourchaire fought off Bearman into Variante del Rettifilo but the Brit got past into Variante della Roggia, as Martins cleared Stanek for third.
Vesti meanwhile had made a strong start from eighth as he quickly recovered to fifth but got spun out by Stanek into the Curve di Lesmo, which caused the Safety Car to be deployed.
Racing resumed on Lap 4 but Leclerc spun out under braking three laps later which brought the Safety Car back out, and forced the frontrunners to pit for their mandatory stops as Bearman retained his lead from Pourchaire.
Martins meanwhile lost out in the pit stops to Maini, Verschoor, Crawford and Hauger amongst others as he rejoined in 11th position.
Racing resumed on Lap 12 as Daruvala and Doohan battled on the alternate strategy but Iwasa caught and passed the pair into Variante della Roggia for the lead.
Nissany meanwhile spun Maloney out on the restart on the main straight, which necessitated another Safety Car period, which saw cars forced to trundle through the pits due to debris on track.
Iwasa, Daruvala, Hadjar and Doohan consequently made their stops which gave Bearman the lead again, as Doohan rejoined second in the pack with Daruvala fourth whilst Iwasa was 10th and Hadjar in 12th position.
Bearman led the field back racing at the start of Lap 16 to head Doohan, Pourchaire and Daruvala, whilst Martins made moves to recover to fifth by the end of Lap 17.
Martins’ race however came to an end on Lap 20 as his DRS flap became stuck open which forced him to pit and retire from the race.
Maini and Crawford meanwhile made contact on Lap 23 through Curva Grande which saw Maini suffer race-ending damage and caused a fourth Safety Car, whilst Crawford recovered to the pits with a puncture.
Racing once again resumed on Lap 27 with Bearman in the lead but Iwasa had quietly worked his way up to third and passed Pourchaire for second on the restart, only for the Safety Car to be redeployed after Crawford stopped on track after contact with Stanek.
The race ultimately finished behind the Safety Car as Bearman took his fourth victory of the season ahead of Iwasa and Pourchaire, as Fittipaldi, Hauger, Doohan, Daruvala, Cordeel, Boschung and Stanek rounded out the top ten.
In the drivers’ standings, Pourchaire extended his title lead over Vesti to 25 points with Iwasa sat a comfortable third place ahead of Doohan, Martins and Bearman.
F2 now heads to Abu Dhabi on weekend of 24-26 November for the season finale, where Vesti faces a mammoth task to snatch the title from Pourchaire.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | 30 | 1h 03m 50.518 |
| 2 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 30 | + 0.258 |
| 3 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 30 | + 0.462 |
| 4 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | 30 | + 0.906 |
| 5 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 30 | + 1.167 |
| 6 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | 30 | + 1.587 |
| 7 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | 30 | + 3.033 |
| 8 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | 30 | + 3.361 |
| 9 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | 30 | + 3.532 |
| 10 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 30 | + 3.915 |
| 11 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | 30 | + 4.208 |
| 12 | Joshua Mason | PHM Racing | 30 | + 4.391 |
| 13 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | 30 | + 5.538 |
| 14 | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | 30 | + 7.666 |
| 15 | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | 30 | + 10.025 |
| RET | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 27 | Collision |
| RET | Kush Maini | Campos | 22 | Collision |
| RET | Victor Martins | ART GP | 20 | DRS |
| RET | Zane Maloney | Carlin | 22 | Spin |
| RET | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | 6 | Spin |
| RET | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | 0 | Spin |
| RET | Clement Novalak | Trident | 0 | Crash |
Leave a Reply