Browning takes maiden F2 win from incident-packed Monza feature race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Luke Browning claimed his maiden Formula 2 victory in an incident-packed feature race at Monza.

Browning navigated multiple safety car restarts and fought back from a late overtake from Joshua Duerksen to take the win by 3.560 seconds.

The Hitech GP driver held onto the lead off the line and in the opening laps pulled away from the rest of the field. A bad start for Kush Maini dropped the other front row starter back into the pack, but once Oliver Goethe had fought his way to second that lead rapidly narrowed.

On the fourth lap, Goethe flew past Browning to take the race lead. A few laps later, Goethe came into the pits, leaving Browning at the front of the field and battling with Roman Stake for position.

Before Browning was called into the pits, Alex Dunne was hit hard from behind by Arvid Lindblad, wiping Dunne out of the race and bringing out the first safety car. Everybody who hadn’t already pitted came through the pit lane, undoing any advantage Goethe might have had by pitting early.

Browning emerged from the pit stop phase top of the order ahead of Stanek and Duerksen, with Goethe in eighth.

Racing resumed on lap 11 but a second incident for Lindblad almost immediately brought out the safety car again. Lindblad had damage to his front wing from the first incident and was unable to make the first corner. He locked up and went straight on, narrowly avoiding Browning but making heavy contact with Stanek, taking him out of the race. Lindblad limped back to the pits where he retired.

It had been a late restart and a few other drivers were caught out with incidents further back, including Cian Shields and Amaury Cordeel, while Victor Martins spun after contact with Gabriele Mini.

The incident was quickly cleared and this time Browning was on the defence when racing resumed. He couldn’t stop Duerksen sweeping past him and into the race lead, and was unable to fight back before a third safety car was called, this time for an incident involving Sami Meguetounif.

Duerksen managed the restart well but couldn’t hold off Browning for long. Browning swept through into the lead, while Duerksen fell back into a battle with Pepe Marti. Duerksen just held off Marti, taking second position and a double podium finish at Monza.

Rafael Villagomez took fourth after losing out to Marti earlier in final portion of the race.

After a poor start, championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli managed to climb back up to fifth, just ahead of Dino Beganovic. Mini took seventh as Richard Verschoor, Sebastian Montoya and John Bennett completed the top 10.

Race results (30 laps)