Photo: Mercedes AMG F1
Joshua Duerksen stormed to victory in Formula 2’s Monza sprint race, claiming his third win of the season from seventh on the grid.
Having secured reverse-grid pole, Trident’s John Bennett converted this into the race lead at turn 1 while second-placed MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe lost out to ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvusak into the first chicane.
By the end of lap one , Invicta Racing’s Duerksen found himself three places higher already, dispatching the Rodin of Martinius Stenshorne into the first Lesmo to secure fourth.
With Bennett extending his advanatge, Duerksen and Stenshorne pounced on a helpless Goethe who dropped down to fifth as the pair progressed.
Duerksen’s charge showed no signs of slowing as he looked to pass Inthraphuvusak for second. The Thai driver held firm, forcing the Paraguayan through the run off at the first corner but couldn’t fend off the Invicta driver on the next lap.
Having slipped to seventh, championship leader Nikola Tsolov and Alex Dunne went wheel-to-wheel and skipped off into the run off at turn 1, dropping the duo to eighth and ninth.
In another crucial moment in the championship fight, Rafael Camara was spun round heading into turn 1 by Nico Varrone. The Brazilian stalled and couldn’t get going again, becoming the first retiree of the day.
With the safety car out, Bennett’s advantage was slashed and he had to defend from Duerksen on the restart on lap 7.
The British driver fended the Invicta off until lap 9 when the Paraguayan breezed past down the pit straight with DRS, securing the position into turn 1.
Noel Leon and Stenshorne began to squabble over fifth place with the Mexican the leading Campos with his teammate Tsolov fighting for the final points paying position.
Duerksen and Bennet had broken away at the front when the battle for the last podium position heated up on lap 10 of 21. On lap 11, Stenshorne drove past Goethe to claim fourth, and both of them and also Leon overtook Inthraphuvasak the following lap, as he locked-up into turn one and had to take the run-off.
Tsolov and Dunne followed through for sixth and seventh respectivly, with Inthraphuvusak down to eighth. The ART GP driver continued to drop in the order, and it was Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen who ended up scoring the final point. Meanwhile, Goethe found his way back past Stenshorne for third on lap 16.
Despite a brief safety car period to recover Roman Bilinski’s DAMS after the Polish driver spun heading out of the Ascari chicane, Duerksen controlled the field and claimed his third victory of the season.
Bennett came home in a lonely second with Goethe fending off Stenshorne for the final podium place.