Maini sprints to F2 win in Monaco, penalty pushes Lindblad off podium

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

DAMS’ Kush Maini was victorious from reversed-grid pole in Formula 2’s Monaco sprint race.

Luke Browning was alongside Maini on the front row, but the Hitech GP driver started slowly and was passed by Prema’s Gabriele Mini and Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad.

Jak Crawford then overtook Browning, and had Lindblad in his sights after losing out to him at the start. When he tried getting back past at turn five, they clashed and Crawford dropped back behind Browning.

Mini got close to Maini on lap two, and Browning set the fastest lap on lap six as three seconds covered the top four. Crawford then had clear air behind him to MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor in sixth.

At this point Lindblad was handed a 10-second penalty for his earlier clash, and rather than push he was instructed by Campos to back off and save his tyres.

That strategy looked to have worked, as although he was 9.4s behind Mini by lap 10 the gap soon disappeared due to the safety car coming out.

Just as Maini began lap 12, racing was neutralised due to AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen crashing exiting turn seven. He had made contact with MP’s Oliver Goethe going into the hairpin while disputing 10th place.

Racing resumed on lap 15 of 30, and Maini streaked away. But Mini also had his tyres up to temperature and set the fastest lap on the next tour to reduce Maini’s lead from 1.5s to 0.4s.

Lindblad continued his earlier strategy, dropping four seconds in two laps and falling further away for several more laps.

Mini lowered the pace again on lap 18, and two laps later was on Maini’s gearbox. He remained there until lap 23 when Maini responded with a personal best to go 1.3s clear.

At the same time, Lindblad returned to attacking and went two seconds faster than Mini to slash the 11.8s gap that had opened up. Maini led by 3.8s at the end of lap 24, and Lindblad was now 4.5s behind Mini.

Mini responded on lap 25, reducing Maini’s advantage to 1.5s, but he could not maintain that pace without laps between to cool his tyres as Lindblad continued to home in.

There was 5.2s covering the top three with four laps left, and half a second between Mini and Lindblad. That then became 4.1s as Mini set a personal best, but he was defending thereafter despite Lindblad’s penalty.

The top two places were set at that point, and Maini won by 3.7s. It then became a question of where Lindblad would finish.

A flurry of personal best laptimes from drivers in the top 10 at the end meant he dropped to eighth, with 3.3s covering Crawford, Verschoor, Prema’s Sebastian Montoya and Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli ahead.

Rodin Motorsport’s points leader Alex Dunne was a distant ninth, a position he inherited after a 10s penalty dropped Goethe to 12th. He had a fight with ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins following the restart that led to Martins hitting the outside wall at Rascasse. After pitting due to damage, Martins set the fastest lap down in 17th.

Race results (30 laps)