Oliver Bearman rose from eighth on the grid to win the sprint race at Monza ahead of Victor Martins and Joshua Duerksen.
The future Haas F1 racer calmly picked off rivals ahead of him in the early laps to assume the lead of the race, then escaped from DRS range to win his second race of the season.When the lights went out, partial-reverse-grid pole sitter Enzo Fittipaldi led down to the Rettifilo chicane but ran over the kerbs at the second part of the chicane. That allowed Pepe Marti to power out of the chicane and take the lead into the Roggia chicane, while Victor Martins moved into third ahead of Amaury Cordeel.
The Safety Car was deployed before the end of the first lap when series debutant Oliver Goethe was clipped by Zak O’Sullivan down the pit straight at the start as the pair were the middle cars in a four-wide bunch off the line. Goethe was sent spinning into the barriers and out of the race, with O’Sullivan also out with damage, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli lost his front wing clipping O’Sullivan himself into the first corner.
Marti led the pack to the restart on lap four but despite Fittipaldi appearing to take the lead he locked up heavily under braking for the chicane and was forced to take the escape road. That dropped him to fourth, promoting Bearman to third, before the Prema driver took second from Martins soon after.
It wasn’t long before Bearman began to challenge Marti for the lead. However as the fight for the lead closed up, Marti missed his braking point for Rettifilo and disappeared down the escape road, handing the lead to Bearman. Marti soon lost second place to Martins, after which Fittipaldi and Joshua Duerksen also passed the Red Bull junior.
Bearman escaped from the one-second margin needed to keep out of DRS range of Martins behind, stabilising his lead at around two seconds. It would remain that way until the chequered flag as the Prema driver secured his second race win of the year at his team’s home round.
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Martins finished just under two seconds behind in second place, with Durksen claiming the final podium place in third after only just holding off Marti by a tenth on the run to the finish line. Zane Maloney climbed to fifth at the finish ahead of Jak Crawford, Fittipaldi and Gabriel Bortoleto climbing from 22nd on the grid to take the final point in eighth. Dennis Hauger and Isack Hadjar completed the top ten.
Formula 2 Italy race one results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Ollie Bearman | Prema |
| 2 | 1 | Victor Martins | ART |
| 3 | 24 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX |
| 4 | 21 | Josep Maria Marti | Campos |
| 5 | 5 | Zane Maloney | Rodin |
| 6 | 7 | Jak Crawford | DAMS |
| 7 | 14 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort |
| 8 | 10 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta |
| 9 | 11 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport |
| 10 | 20 | Isack Hadjar | Campos |
| 11 | 9 | Kush Maini | Invicta |
| 12 | 16 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech |
| 13 | 6 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin |
| 14 | 22 | Richard Verschoor | Trident |
| 15 | 23 | Roman Stanek | Trident |
| 16 | 15 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort |
| 17 | 8 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS |
| 18 | 4 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema |
| 19 | 25 | Niels Koolen | AIX |
| 20 | 17 | Paul Aron | Hitech |
| DNF | 12 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport |
| DNF | 2 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART |
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Formula 2
- Duerksen passes Mini to claim maiden F2 win in Baku sprint race
- Hadjar is first Formula 2 driver to be penalised for causing a red flag in qualifying
- Verschoor pips Antonelli to pole as bizarre brake problem halts Hadjar
- Antonelli and Bearman’s F1 graduations show the limitations of its feeder series
- Bortoleto wins from last on grid thanks to Safety Car
