Red Bull junior driver Ayumu Iwasa profited from engine trouble taking Isaak Hadjar out of the running to claim victory in the Formula 2 Monaco sprint race.
Jehan Daruvala, who had appeared a credible threat for victory at one stage, trailed a distant second, while Jak Crawford ensured that he provided some solace to the Hitech squad by coming home third in the sister car to claim the final podium place.
Hadjar comfortably maintained the lead from Iwasa at the start, with no changes of position occurring in the top seven as all the drivers made it through the opening exchanges relatively unscathed.
However, that soon changed when Kush Maini, attempting to make a move on Amaury Cordeel into the Nouvelle chicane, was hit into a spin by Clement Novalak. The Frenchman was soon hit with a 10s time penalty for the incident, swiftly followed by another 5s penalty after he was found guilty of speeding in the pit lane.
With the track blocked temporarily by Maini’s Campos, the Safety Car was called into action. Following four courses of the circuit restricted at limited speed, the lights on the Safety Car went out at the end of Lap 5 to prompt a return to green flag conditions.
But Hadjar’s race would immediately unravel when the polesitter was forced to pull off the racing line out of Turn 1 with an engine issue that then forced him into retirement.
The Hitech’s early exit promoted fellow Red Bull junior driver Iwasa into the lead and the Japanese racer set about rapidly pulling clear of the chasing pack behind, creating a 2s buffer within three laps.
But Iwasa’s margin was quickly whittled down by Daruvala, who had easily shaken off the cars directly behind him, led by Crawford.
An uneventful race was impacted by the introduction of the Safety Car for the second time on Lap 23 when Cordeel skated off into the barrier at Mirabeau.
The stricken Virtuosi car was cleared briskly, with Iwasa making the perfect restart for the second time to open up critical breathing room to Daruvala behind to ensure he would collect his third winners’ trophy of 2023.
Rather than applying pressure to the race leader as he had been doing prior to the Safety Car, the Indian, complaining of a potential issue with his brakes, was forced to spend the restart looking in his mirrors.
Despite complaining that Crawford was slow earlier in proceedings, Richard Verschoor was unable to mount an attack on the American throughout to narrowly miss out on a trip to the rostrum in the Principality.
Zane Maloney wound up fifth for Rodin Carlin, ahead of Jack Doohan and the two ART Grand Prix cars, Victor Martins leading Theo Pourchaire to complete the points places.
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