F2 Monza: Daruvala dominates to score first win of 2021

Starting second on the grid, the Carlin driver took the lead into the first chicane and was never headed thereafter, reaching the chequered flag six seconds ahead of Trident's Bent Viscaal to score his first win since the final round of 2020 in Sakhir.

Second marked Viscaal's best result to date in his rookie F2 campaign, while second-year Prema driver Robert Shwartzman made up for losing out on a race one podium to a post-race time penalty with a strong drive to third.

Liam Lawson took fourth for Hitech, as polesitter David Beckmann slipped back to fifth late on.

Daruvala immediately jumped ahead of series returnee Beckmann - who is replacing Matteo Nannini at Campos Racing for this weekend - at the start, the leading pair pursued by Viscaal and Juri Vips (Hitech), while, further back, race-one podium finisher Christian Lundgaard spun his ART machine at the second chicane.

The race was interrupted by a virtual safety car deployed from laps three to five after HWA Racelab team-mates Jake Hughes and Alessio Deledda collided in the battle for 13th at Turn 1, ending Hughes’ race. Seconds later, Charouz’s Guilherme Samaia lost power at the pitlane entry while attempting to crawl back to the garage.

Daruvala escaped after the restart, as Beckmann began to come under pressure from Viscaal. Eventually that pressure told on lap 19 of 21 as Beckmann ran deep into the escape road at the first chicane.

Beckmann took defensive action when rejoining, a move noted by the stewards as an unsafe rejoin, and briefly tussled with Viscaal before the Dutchman made it through.

On the penultimate lap, Shwartzman stole third from Beckmann into the Ascari chicane before Lawson also moved past - Beckmann ending up just three tenths ahead of Vips at the flag.

Guanyu Zhou, UNI-Virtuosi

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Vips had lost fourth to Shwartzman on lap 11 and also fell prey to Lawson, but held off championship leader Oscar Piastri (Prema) to claim sixth, Piastri extending his points lead over fellow Alpine junior Guanyu Zhou (UNI-Virtuosi) in eighth.

After being passed by race one winner Theo Pourchaire on lap three, Piastri regained seventh place on lap 14. Zhou then piled the pressure on Pourchaire and was rewarded with eighth place when the ART driver locked up on lap 17.

Pourchaire eventually slipped to 10th, with Ralph Boschung (Campos) passing late on to finish ninth.

Monza F2 Race 2 Results - 21 laps:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	-
2	Bent Viscaal	Trident	6.100	6.100
3	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	9.300	9.300
4	Liam Lawson	HitechGP	9.900	9.900
5	David Beckmann	Campos Racing	10.800	10.800
6	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	11.100	11.100
7	Oscar Piastri	Prema Powerteam	11.700	11.700
8	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	12.200	12.200
9	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	12.900	12.900
10	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	15.400	15.400
11	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	15.600	15.600
12	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	17.800	17.800
13	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	21.700	21.700
14	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	25.400	25.400
15	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	26.800	26.800
16	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	33.200	33.200
17	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	35.300	35.300
18	Roy Nissany	DAMS	40.000	40.000
19	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	43.400	43.400
20	Marino Sato	Trident	1'22.500	1 Lap
	Jake Hughes	HWA Racelab	19 laps
	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System	12.000	1 Lap
View full results