León dominates in lights-to-flag Monaco F2 Sprint victory

Noel León led every lap of the Monte Carlo Sprint Race on his way to claiming a dominant second victory of the FIA Formula 2 season. Starting from pole, the Campos Racing driver managed the race expertly before going on to win by over three seconds. DAMS Lucas Oil driver Roman Bilinski achieved his maiden F2 podium in P2 ahead of MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì in third.

AS IT HAPPENED

It was a good start from León, who kept the lead ahead of Bilinski, while Minì kept P3 ahead of Joshua Duerksen. In the battle for P11 Ritomo Miyata and Oliver Goethe went wheel-to-wheel through the hairpin and Mirabeau. However, they made slight contact which caused the MP Motorsport driver to pit, dropping him to the back of the field.

Out in front, León was struggling to pull away from Bilinski with the DAMS driver consistently within DRS range of the Mexican during the opening laps. The top four drivers of León, Bilinski, Minì and Duerksen were pulling away from the rest of the field, and by lap 5 just two seconds separated the quartet.

Down the field, Laurens van Hoepen, who started in P21 was up to 15th by lap 8. However, the Trident driver’s charge was halted when he was given a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at the start. On to lap 11 of 30, the drivers entered management mode, but the top four were still close, and were covered by 2.7s.

As the race reached the halfway point, Dino Beganovic had closed the gap to Duerksen and was now within DRS range of the Invicta Racing driver. Miyata, who had been running with a broken front wing since his contact with Goethe on the opening lap, was looking to make a move past Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak at Tabac, but found the door closed on lap 17.

By the next lap the top two of León and Bilinski had pulled a three-second gap to Minì, as they continued to battle for the lead. The Italian driver was now running on his own having built a 2.3s gap to Duerksen in P4, with Beganovic right on the back of the Invicta driver on Lap 20.

Miyata’s pressure on Inthraphuvasak finally paid off on lap 22 as he dived to the inside of the ART Grand Prix driver on the run to Tabac. On the next lap, the Hitech driver was putting pressure on Nikola Tsolov for P10, while behind them, Mari Boya went around the outside of van Hoepen at the hairpin for P15.

With five laps to go, Inthraphuvasak retired to the pitlane with an issue. At the front of the field, León was now 2.4s ahead of Bilinski with Minì having closed the gap on the Polish rookie, just over a second away on lap 27. The Campos driver continued to pull away and by the start of the final lap he was over three seconds clear of the rest of the field and would go on to win for the second time this season.

“Feels great to win in Monaco, my second win in a row on a weekend and in a Sprint," said León. "Yesterday we missed a bit, we missed pole, but luckily it put me in a position to start on the front row today, to get the 10 points, and for the championship it is great.”

Bilinski held off Minì’s charge to take his maiden podium, with Duerksen in P4 ahead of Beganovic. Stenshorne finished sixth ahead of Kush Maini, as Rafael Câmara rounded out the points in eighth. America's Colton Herta placed 15th.

Minì continues to lead the F2 drivers’ championship with 63 points, while León has jumped up second, 20 points adrift of his rival. Stenshorne is third on 38 points, with Câmara a further point in fourth, as Tsolov rounds out the top five.

F2 drivers have one more chance to hit the jackpot in Monte Carlo with Sunday’s Feature Race, set to start at 9:25am local time. 

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