Leon claims back-to-back F2 sprint race wins with Monaco victory

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Noel Leon completed back-to-back sprint race victories as he took a dominant win from pole in Monaco to lead home DAMS driver Roman Bilinski.

Leon converted his reversed-grid pole into the race lead at the first corner as the top four remained unchanged with Bilinski leading Gabriele Mini and Joshua Duerksen.

Behind, MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe and Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata went wheel to wheel through turn 6 as the pair battled over 11th place on the road. Goethe held on but not for long before he dropped down the order with a suspected puncture on the following lap.

Martinius Stenshorne was the quickest driver on track, setting the fastest lap on lap two while his Rodin Motorsport team-mate Alex Dunne dropped from seventh down to ninth and out of the points scoring positions.

With ART Grand Prix’s Kush Maini looking feisty behind Stenshorne, the top five were able to pull away from the battle behind, growing a gap of six seconds by lap eight.

The front two seemed to be in a class of their own, Leon and Bilinski extending their gap over Mini to nearly two seconds but the DAMS driver remained frustrated under the rear wing of Leon’s Campos.

As the race reached halfway the closest battle on the track became the battle for 11th, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Miyata locking horns with the Japanese driver completing a spectacular move past the Thai driver on the inside of turn 12.

Elsewhere, Prema’s Mari Boya was enjoying an upturn in fortunes, squabbling with Trident’s Laurens Van Hoepen (who had been handed a 10-second penalty) with the pair making contact before Boya forced his way past through the hairpin. Inthraphuvasak meanwhile slowed coming out of the tunnel and pulled into the pits to retire.

Up front, Leon proved unbeatable. The Mexican extended his lead over Bilinski to 2.9s by lap 27 and, with three laps to go, was comfortably clear while Bilinski fended off Mini and Duerksen.

Leon crossed the line 3.4s clear of Bilinski, who held off a late charge by Mini and Duerksen who completed the top four. Dino Beganovic rounded out the top five, with Stenshorne, Maini and Rafael Camara rounding out the scorers.

Race results (30 laps)