Start, Formula 2 sprint race, Monza, 2019

Aitken denies King after black-and-white flag

Formula Two

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Jack Aitken was shown the black-and-white flag en route to his third win of 2019 at Monza, ahead of rival Jordan King who was unhappy with the Campos driver’s “weaving” to defend his position.

The race began on a damp track following a morning shower, though the racing line had been dried by the preceding Formula 3 race. However any deviation from the line saw a much wetter track and the odd-numbered grid places offered a clear advantage. Championship contender Nicholas Latifi spun on his way to the grid, but was able to make the formation lap to line up in 13th place.

Aitken started from reverse-grid pole yesterday with Giuliano Alesi alongside him and King behind. Making full use of that, Aitken made a strong getaway and was well clear by the time the pack reached Curva Grande.

Early contact between Sergio Sette Camara and Luca Ghiotto saw the home racer, already frustrated to lose out to a win against Nobuharu Matsushita yesterday, carrying front wing damage from lap one.

Callum Ilott, who had missed out on a win from his first F2 pole yesterday, was able to pass Alesi on lap five to take third place. Ahead of him, King was keeping Aitken within half a second and seemed unable to break the tow the MP Motorsport car was getting from his Campos.

Unable to shake King, Aitken was overtaken smoothly while trying to weave to break the tow line, King’s DRS easily overpowering him on the straight. But a Virtual Safety Car period handed Aitken the chance to reclaim the lead.

Sette Camara and Ghiotto his trouble again on lap seven: Sette Camara stopped on track and Ghiotto made contact with De Vries, sending his already-damaged front wing flying, causing yellow flags across the circuit and a brief VSC period.

Aitken immediately reclaimed the lead at the restart, slipstreaming from King to easily pass him but again unable to get more than half a second ahead. Aitken and King’s battle continued, until lap 11 when a slowing King was passed by Ilott, pushing him down to third. The three remained extremely close, with less than a second-and-a-half between them for the following five laps.

By lap 17 King was complaining about Ilott and Aitken’s weaving to break the tow for the cars behind. With two laps of the 22 remaining, Aitken was given the black and white flag, a warning for that movement, giving Ilott an opportunity to make good on the six tenths of a second between them.

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Ilott made a final push to take the lead on lap 21, sending him spinning and back to seventh place at turn one and allowing Matsushita and King past De Vries. Ilott was unable to regain speed, ending the race in 12th place.

Aitken was able to see the chequered flag, taking his third F2 win of the year with King in second and Matsushita in third, however a five-second penalty for Matsushita for an infringement under the virtual safety car put him back to fifth after crossing the line.

De Vries still leads the championship, with 225 points heading into the final two rounds putting him 59 points clear of second-place Latifi, who failed to score at all this year.

Sprint Race results

1. Jack Aitken (Campos)
2. Jordan King (MP Motorsport) +2.7s
3. Nyck de Vries (ART) +6.5s
4. Guanyu Zhou (UNI-Virtuosi) +7.6s
5. Nobuharu Matsushita (Carlin) +8.1s
6. Mick Schumacher (Prema) +8.5s
7. Giuliano Alesi (Trident) +12.8s
8. Louis Deletraz (Carlin) +13.3s
9. Nikita Mazepin (ART) +13.9s
10. Nicholas Latifi (DAMS) +23.0s
11. Marino Sato (Campos) +29.5s
12. Callum Ilott (Sauber Junior Team) +41.3s
13. Mahaveer Raghunathan (MP Motorsport) +52.4s
14. Tatiana Calderon (BWT Arden) +53.0s
15. Luca Ghiotto (UNI-Virtuosi) +92.6s
16. Sean Gelael (Prema) – DNF
17. Sergio Sette Camara (DAMS) – DNF

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    Hazel Southwell
    Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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    9 comments on “Aitken denies King after black-and-white flag”

    1. F2 grid has been a let down this year

      Tyres don’t let the rookies shine, favour the ones with more experience

      Those that have experience aren’t nothing special, that’s why they have experience in junior formulas.

      De Vries made use of it yesterday, but was all over the place today. Ghiotto the same. Latifi seems to be the only one that will graduate to F1, thanks to his pockets, the guy is so bad it hurts

      Lets hope next year we get an handful of talent from F3, they sort the tyres, and we can have a good battle between this year’s rookies, and the rookies of next year

      1. BLS (@brightlampshade)
        8th September 2019, 11:51

        I suppose we were a little spoilt with the talent in F2 last year. Can’t remember the last time 3 “worthy” drivers got promoted to F1 together!

        1. I think this is a seriously unfair assessment of the current field. Last year car issues played a gigantic role in the championship, certainly in knocking eg: Aitken out of contention and in significantly affecting many drivers’ confidence.

          The new F2 car has been very difficult for the teams to get to grips with, experience has helped but the fact a lack of it made no difference last year is hardly relevant as the car was new for everyone! De Vries, Aitken and Ghiotto have certainly proven themselves but none have been massively hyped or backed. Hubert was destined for success, with two superb wins and Correa has had two podiums, both rookies.

          Aitken won as many races as Lando Norris last year. There are some weaker drivers in F2 but that is to be expected in a series which costs around €2 million to run in with a car that you cannot guarantee makes it to the grid each weekend (see Boschung in Hungary) – if you want to make a critique, it is that the new Dallara is simply not creating an attractive series for the costs.

          1. I agree. I find it offensive if people call the current field Palmers and Vandoornes waiting to happen. De Vries for example would have outscored Albon in the standings if Albon didn’t hit him in the Pitlane entry at Monaco last season…

            1. De Vries would have taken P2 without that incident last season, this season he build up a more impressive lead then Russell did last year….despite of it all… no one has mentioned his name in F1…
              Norris had been boosted by the media, Albon lucky with Ricciardo’s unexpected move… they both do a great job in F1 so far…despite Russell being the far better driver in F2

            2. I think you might offend more people by putting Palmer and Vandoorne in the same bag @deregtx ahah

          2. @hazelsouthwell Indeed, though to be fair I’m only mildly excited by this year’s grid. But it isn’t a let down either. Watching it since 2011 I think it is a fairly standard level compared to previous years.

            Obviously we’d like to see a grid full of future F1 champions but it has never been the case. Best years though are when a great rivalry pops up and spice up the championship, which is not really the case this year unfortunately.

          3. @hazelsouthwell I didn’t meant to say there is no talent in the F2 grid, neither @brightlampshade I think

            The main problem is that the circumstances favoured so much those with experience that raw talent has been going under the radar

            I don’t think it’s fair either to dismiss some of these guys experience just because they changed the car last year. In fact experience play a big role in that adaptation. Exacerbated by how they have to handle the tyres (most rookies have complained that they are very different to managed compared to F3)

            Callum Iliot, Mick, Zhou do all appear to have a good future ahead of them, they surely have talent. Hubert would be on that list too

            Out of the more experienced ones I would single out De Vries, but even him hasn’t won a championship since 2014. Yes may he didn’t had the backing that he should, but he drove for Dams, Art and Prema (and now back at Art again), without the success that he should have shown on those occasions

            Aitken is in his second full season in F2 right? He needs to click until the end of the year, and possibly next year too. But 3 years in F2 is stretching it, although I agree with you here, the absolute mess of a car they had last year, plays a big influence. Let that one slide

            Latifi, you didn’t mentioned him, can’t fault you. The first GP2 race he did was back in 2014. He is 3 years older than Max, and Max already has that level of experience in F1. He doesn’t even have the required super licence points, and his best result at the end of a season as a 5th place. He is currently 2nd in the standings. Surely you can agree it doesn’t look good on the field? When their uncle is leading them

            And then we have Sergio Sette Camara, is he still under the wing of McLaren? Do you know how many wins did he got since 2014 combining all of his categories? 2! just 2 wins

            1. I could I have done this? I forgot Raghunathan!!!!

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