Bortoleto goes from last to first to win Monza F2 feature race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Gabriel Bortoleto came from last on the grid to win the Monza Formula 2 feature race and close on championship leader Isack Hadjar.

Bortoleto, who started 22nd after spinning out of qualifying, was helped by a safety car during the pit-stop phase that allowed him to leap up the field ahead of the early leader Zane Maloney.

Paul Aron made the best start of the frontrunners from third on the grid and was challenging polesitter Maloney for the lead under braking for the first chicane when he got rear-ended by Pepe Marti, who had made an even better launch from seventh on the grid but locked up when he hit the brakes alongside his team-mate Isack Hadjar.

Hadjar had to take avoiding action and dropped to fifth as Prema pair Ollie Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli went side-by-side for second place behind Maloney.

After a brief safety car while Aron’s car was retrieved, Maloney managed to build a one-second gap to Bearman by lap six, when the Ferrari junior would pit at the first opportunity together with Victor Martins.

Maloney pitted a lap later, followed by Joshua Duerksen, Hadjar and Antonelli. They emerged from the pits to find Dennis Hauger’s car stranded in the first chicane after he was spun by Ritomo Miyata, and the safety car was deployed once more.

That gifted a cheap pitstop not only to Bortoleto, who had already worked his way up towards the points positions in the early laps, but also to Richard Verschoor and they both emerged ahead of Maloney.

At the restart, Bortoleto had to try to pass Niels Koolen and the debutant locked up into first chicane – with Roman Stanek seeing him coming and managing to avoid a crash.

By lap 15 of 30, Bortoleto had taken the lead past Invicta team-mate Kush Maini, while Maloney would continue to lose time for several more laps trying to pass Oliver Goethe.

Maloney went on to pass Verschoor but never caught Maini, who finally pitted with two laps to go, and by that point Bortoleto had opened up a lead that would grow further to 9.4 seconds by the chequered flag.

Verschoor would complete the podium ahead of Antonelli, who came out on top of a frantic race-long scrap with Bearman, Duerksen and Martins.

While looking for a way past a defensive Martins, the Prema duo went side-by-side several times, with Bearman ending up in the Turn 2 gravel trap on the final occasion with six laps to go.

Duerksen had several off-track adventures, including as he tried to pass Martins, giving Antonelli the chance to get back ahead, but both Antonelli and Duerksen would overtake Martins before the end.

Hadjar lost time when he made his pit-stop, dropping him to 18th, and he ended up 11th at the finish. It means there are now just 10.5 points between Hadjar and Bortoleto, after the latter stole half a point from Hauger in a dead-heat finish to Saturday’s sprint race.

Race results (30 laps)