Why F2’s Monaco podium finishers weren’t in fastest lap contention

Photo: Prema

The difficulty in overtaking meant many Formula 2 drivers switched focus to setting the fastest lap during the Monaco sprint race, but it proved as tricky.

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins achieved the feat after pitting, but the point that accompanies it went to Rodin Motorsport’s ninth-placed Alex Dunne as the fastest driver in the top 10.

Kush Maini (DAMS) and Gabriele Mini (Prema) pulled away at the front of the field but did not lap near Dunne’s pace, and Luke Browning (Hitech GP) inherited third place but had his laptimes neutered for most of the race.

He was stuck behind Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad, who after learning he had a 10-second penalty knew third was unttainable and let the top two gap him so he then had clean air to try to offset the penalty.

Lindblad ended up being fourth fastest, and finished eighth. Mini was fifth, Browning was 1.718s off the fastest lap and despite having cleair air throughout Maini was the 15th fastest driver on track. His best effort was 2.167s slower than Martins’, and only two finishers reached their peak pace earlier than he did.

“I was struggling a bit with front locking,” Maini revealed. “One of my brakes as well fell asleep, so it was not about going for the quickest lap for me this race. It was just about being consistent and not making mistakes and controlling the race.”

He added it was “fair enough” that others backed off as a tactic in pursuit of the fastest lap point.

Mini spent the race’s first half pressuring Maini, then switched focus to the fastest lap. That initially worked as he went quickest on lap 16 of 30, improved by 0.564s on lap 18 but was right behind Maini when others started setting personal bests.

“I tried to put a lot of pressure on Kush, really just be as close as I could to him: almost pushing him in some points on corners. Trying to make him make a mistake,” he explained to media including Formula Scout of his strategy switch.

“But following more or less three quarters of the race on the gearbox of Kush ruined a bit the tyres, so it was quite complicated for me to actually manage to do [the fastest lap].”

Browning was frustrated by Lindblad, who slowed so much he fell 9.5s behind Mini, calling the laps following him “painful” and “annoying”.

“He was trying to create the biggest gap he could to the guys in front. So the moment that I backed off trying to do the fastest lap, he would back off and then block me to do it. So I was kind of screwed if I slowed down and I was screwed if I was quick and right behind him,” rued Browning.

“The reason why I was trying to overtake him so much at the start of the race was if I managed to get past, I’d have a shot at doing the fastest lap. Otherwise, I wouldn’t.”

Sprint race fastest laps