Roundup of the eleventh round of the 2024 F2 season as the title fight delivered more twists in Monza, Italy.
Isack Hadjar arrived in Monza as the title leader but a round packed with surprises and two slightly unexpected winners delivered drama, which has blown the title fight wide open once more.
Now, here is a roundup of all the action in Monza, Italy as F2 continued to prove unpredictable.
Practice
AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen was first out onto the circuit and soon set 1m 52.248 as the initial benchmark time, which soon tumbled with Zak O’Sullivan and Zane Maloney amongst those who exchanged fastest laps.
Come the halfway mark, it was MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger sat top with 1m 33.209 from Maloney and O’Sullivan.
Durksen went quickest with 1m 32.953 in the 31st minute but Maloney, Ritomo Miyata and Gabriel Bortoleto all briefly went fastest, but Maloney secured the quickest time of 1m 32.385 with four minutes left.
Bortoleto and O’Sullivan finished second and third fastest as the red flags came out with two minutes left, after Trident’s Roman Stanek stopped on the exit of the second Lesmo curve after colliding with the barriers.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Zane Maloney | Rodin | 1m 32.385 |
| 2 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta | + 0.145 |
| 3 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART GP | + 0.149 |
| 4 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin | + 0.320 |
| 5 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | + 0.472 |
| 6 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 0.481 |
| 7 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | + 0.568 |
| 8 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | + 0.652 |
| 9 | Isack Hadjar | Campos | + 0.744 |
| 10 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | + 0.779 |
| 11 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | + 0.790 |
| 12 | Pepe Marti | Campos | + 0.833 |
| 13 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | + 0.924 |
| 14 | Enzo Fittipaldi | VAR | + 0.982 |
| 15 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 1.073 |
| 16 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | + 1.085 |
| 17 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 1.146 |
| 18 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | PREMA | + 1.457 |
| 19 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | + 1.581 |
| 20 | Kush Maini | Invicta | + 1.822 |
| 21 | Niels Koolen | AIX Racing | + 4.114 |
| 22 | Roman Stanek | Trident | No Time |
Qualifying
Stanek was the first and only driver to head out early which left him free to set a benchmark time of 1m 34.992, before he found 1.154 seconds on his next flying lap to lower his time to 1m 33.838.
Antonelli though displaced him with 1m 32.941 in the 11th minute, but the red flags came out after Martins ran wide through the Lesmo curves and knocked an advertising hoarding onto the track.
The session resumed seven minutes later with the timer reduced to 16 minutes but just four minutes after the restart, the session was again stopped after Bortoleto spun out at the second Lesmo curve.
Stewards however opted to continue the timer in fear of overrunning into F1’s FP2 slot, which led to a frantic finish as everyone tried to put a lap time in.
At the checkered flag, Maloney emerged fastest with 1m 32.160 and just 0.089s quicker than Hadjar, whilst Aron, Hauge, Martins, Antonelli, Marti, Bearman, Cordeel and Fittipaldi rounded out the top ten.
Fittipaldi inherited reverse-pole for the Sprint but Bearman and Antonelli started eighth and 15th respectively, owing to grid penalties picked up in Belgium before the summer break.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Zane Maloney | Rodin | 1m 32.160 |
| 2 | Isack Hadjar | Campos | + 0.089 |
| 3 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | + 0.162 |
| 4 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | + 0.181 |
| 5 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 0.188 |
| 6 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | PREMA | + 0.214 |
| 7 | Pepe Marti | Campos | + 0.348 |
| 8 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | + 0.359 |
| 9 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | + 0.452 |
| 10 | Enzo Fittipaldi | VAR | + 0.460 |
| 11 | Joshua Dufek | AIX Racing | + 0.468 |
| 12 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 0.512 |
| 13 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART GP | + 0.565 |
| 14 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | + 0.620 |
| 15 | Kush Maini | Invicta | + 0.664 |
| 16 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.726 |
| 17 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin | + 0.736 |
| 18 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | + 0.796 |
| 19 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | + 0.816 |
| 20 | Roman Stanek | Trident | + 1.031 |
| 21 | Niels Koolen | AIX Racing | + 2.081 |
| 22 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta | + 19.647 |
Sprint Race
Fittipaldi made a clean start at lights out but cut Variante del Rettifilo and conceded the lead to Marti, whilst Martins cleared Cordeel for third and Bearman improved from eighth to fifth.
The safety car however was deployed after O’Sullivan made a false start but ultimately collided with Goethe into Rettifilo to end their races.
Racing resumed on Lap 4 and Bearman quickly cleared Cordeel then Martins for second on the next two laps, whilst Fittipaldi locked up at the restart and slipped to seventh.
Marti ultimately couldn’t keep a fast-charging Bearman at bay and the Brit took the lead on the inside of Curva Grande on Lap 7, after Marti got wide at Rettifilo and the Spaniard then lost second to Martins into Variante della Roggia on Lap 8.
Durksen meanwhile drove a measured drive to take third from Marti, Maloney, Crawford and Fittipaldi, whilst Hauger and Bortoleto were awarded 0.5 point apiece after they finished joint eighth at the checkered flag.
Bortoleto’s half-point trimmed his title deficit to Hadjar slightly to 35.5 points, whilst Aron remained third.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | 21 | 35m 37.225 |
| 2 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 21 | + 1.694 |
| 3 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | 21 | + 7.254 |
| 4 | Pepe Marti | Campos | 21 | + 12.880 |
| 5 | Zane Maloney | Rodin | 21 | + 13.442 |
| 6 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 21 | + 13.486 |
| 7 | Enzo Fittipaldi | VAR | 21 | + 13.587 |
| 8 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 21 | + 14.840 |
| 9 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta | 21 | + 14.840 |
| 10 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | 21 | + 16.126 |
| 11 | Kush Maini | Invicta | 21 | + 17.120 |
| 12 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | 21 | + 19.164 |
| 13 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin | 21 | + 22.808 |
| 14 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 21 | + 23.376 |
| 15 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 21 | + 24.990 |
| 16 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 21 | + 29.441 |
| 17 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | 21 | + 29.713 |
| 18 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | PREMA | 21 | + 32.510 |
| 19 | Niels Koolen | AIX Racing | 21 | + 48.820 |
| 20 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | 20 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 21 | Collision |
| RET | Zak O’Sullivan | PREM | 21 | Collision |
At lights out, Maloney made a quick getaway but Aron was on his heels only for a fast-charging Marti to spin the Estonian out at Rettifilo, which caused a safety car.
Bearman meanwhile climbed from eighth to second ahead of Antonelli and Durksen as Hadjar slipped to fifth.
Racing resumed on Lap 3 with Hadjar quick to clear Durksen but the Paraguayan hit back two laps later, before he then passed Antonelli on Lap 6 for third.
Bearman was the first super-soft tyre runner to pit on Lap 7 with Maloney and Durksen following suit a lap later, but upon exiting the pit-lane ahead of Bearman they found that Hauger had spun out at Rettifilo to cause another safety car.
Bortoleto had begun the race from last place on the grid but had stayed out until the end of Lap 8, when he pitted and re-joined in the net lead.
Racing recommenced on Lap 11 with Goethe in the lead but he was demoted by Maini on Lap 13, whilst Bortoleto was on a charge and seized the lead from his teammate into Roggia on Lap 15.
Bortoleto subsequently sprinted away to victory from Maloney and Verschoor, once Maini and the alternate runners pitted in the closing laps.
Antonelli finished fourth after he punted his teammate, Bearman into the gravel at Rettifilo on Lap 24, then passed Martins two laps later and the Frenchman then lost fifth to Durksen on Lap 28.
Martins ultimately saw off Bearman to finish sixth, whilst Villagomez, Miyata and Crawford rounded out the top ten.
In the drivers’ standings, Bortoleto benefitted from Hadjar’s 11th-placed finish to cut his title deficit down to 10.5 points, whilst Maloney moved up to third ahead of Aron and Crawford.
F2 now heads to Baku, Azerbaijan across the weekend of 13-15 September for a crucial round, as the season begins to hit its home straight.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta | 30 | 50m 30.337 |
| 2 | Zane Maloney | Rodin | 30 | + 9.436 |
| 3 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 30 | + 11.628 |
| 4 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | PREMA | 30 | + 14.173 |
| 5 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | 30 | + 14.558 |
| 6 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 30 | + 15.047 |
| 7 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | 30 | + 15.399 |
| 8 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 30 | + 15.753 |
| 9 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 30 | + 17.054 |
| 10 | Enzo Fittipaldi | VAR | 30 | + 17.372 |
| 11 | Isack Hadjar | Campos | 30 | + 17.864 |
| 12 | Pepe Marti | Campos | 30 | + 18.600 |
| 13 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART GP | 30 | + 25.424 |
| 14 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin | 30 | + 31.720 |
| 15 | Kush Maini | Invicta | 30 | + 46.981 |
| 16 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 30 | + 51.605 |
| 17 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 30 | + 62.455 |
| 18 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | 30 | + 81.694 |
| 19 | Niels Koolen | AIX Racing | 30 | + 86.773 |
| RET | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | 16 | Damage |
| RET | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 7 | Spin |
| RET | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | 0 | Collision |