Noel Leon claimed a special victory on the unforgiving street circuit of Monte-Carlo, besting Roman Bilinksi and Gabriele Mini in the Formula 2 Monaco Sprint Race.
The Sprint Race was incident-free with the 22 drivers steering clear of the walls. Leon took advantage of the lack of chaos, moving into an early lead and holding strong despite pressure from behind.
Leon was starting on pole with Bilinksi alongside him, both looking to lead the 22-driver field into the first turn. With overtaking increasingly difficult around Monaco, the opening lap is the most important for drivers’ hopes of winning.
Leon made a clean start
Leon made a strong start as the lights went out with Bilinski close behind him. The Polish driver locked up behind the Campos driver leading the race, luckily managed to stay on the track and keep it clean.
Mini was quick off the line, slotting into third. The championship leader had a 19-point lead coming into the Monaco GP weekend.
Down through Mirabaeu, Oliver Goethe went side by side with Ritomo Miyata’s Hitech. The MP driver made light contact with the Hitech driver. Goethe made his way into the pit lane on contact, damaging his car.
Bilinski began to close the gap to Leon on Lap 4, with just 0.6 seconds between the top two. Goethe emerged from the pit lane on the super soft tyres, but he was significantly behind the pack.
While the top five remained close, Martinius Stenshorne was quickly dropping back from the others in sixth. The gap reached 9.5 seconds from Stenshorne to Leon.
Bilinski had a difficult lap, losing 0.9 seconds to Leon in the lead. The Polish driver briefly fell out of the DRS range. However, on the next lap, he was back on pace, and the gap was down to 0.8 seconds on Lap 15.
Tasanapol Inthtraphuvasak, in 11th, was defending against Miyata while closing in on Nikola Tsolov in 10th. Tsolov had dropped back from ninth place, creating a train of cars stuck behind the Campos driver.
Leon began to extend the gap out front, breaking the DRS and settling into a 2-second lead from Bilinski. The DAMS Lucas Oil driver was pushing to close the gap.
On Lap 22, Miyata went down the inside of Inthraphuvasak into the Nouvelle Chicane, moving into 11th place by the time the Hitech driver entered Tabac.
The Hitech driver was ready to stop at 11th, setting his sights on Tsolov, who was struggling in 10th. Dropping off 15 seconds from Alex Dunne in ninth, the Red Bull Junior was under mounting pressure from behind.
Tsolov picking up the pace
On Lap 24, Tsolov set the fastest lap, the previous slowing clearly coming from the Campos driver, who was cooling his tyres for an impressive push lap.
Disaster struck Inthraphuvasak as the ART driver slowed on the side of the track, limping his way back to the pits. Luckily, he made it back into the pits, but it was the end of the Sprint Race for the ART driver.
Out front, the order seemed to cement further as Leon’s gap grew to 3.1 seconds from Bilinski. However, the Polish driver in second was under pressure from Mini in third, and Mini was facing similar pressure from Joshua Durrksen on his gearbox.
Coming into the final lap, Leon was cruising to Sprint Race victory around the iconic principality. Bilinski and Mini crossed the line to finish on the podium.
Duerksen and Beganovic rounded out the top five. Stenshorne finished 1.4 seconds back from Beganovic in sixth with Maini over a second behind in seventh. Rafa Camara took the final points position.
The Feature Race tomorrow puts more points on the table for the drivers, especially for the championship top three in Mini, Camara and Tsolov.
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