Formula 2: Maini wins his first victory of the season
Kush Maini, an Indian driver from the French DAMS team, started the Formula 2 sprint on Saturday from pole position. In general, he was lucky that he scored 10th in yesterday's qualifying, and with the partially reversed start order, this meant that he would start the race from the most favorable position today.
With all his experience, and in 2025 he is already spending his third season in F2, now things are frankly not going well for Maini: before the stage in Monaco, he had only one point on his account.
At the same time, Jack Crawford, his team-mate, already had 38 points, pole position and victory in Saturday's short race at Imola. The American started today from the second row – his light blue Dallara was in 4th position, and between the two DAMS riders on the starting field were the cars of Luke Browning, a participant in the Williams youth program, and Gabriele Mini, a student at the Alpine Academy.
Of course, everyone wanted to distinguish themselves, because it costs a lot to succeed on the legendary Monaco circuit, including Maini, who expressed the hope before the start that this particular race would be the turning point of the season for him, and he would be able to make changes for the better.
On the one hand, he had good chances when starting from pole position on a narrow urban track, on the other hand, it was clear that his rivals were also belligerent and were not going to make his task easier.
Kush drove off quite confidently, but Browning clearly hesitated, Mini and Crawford took advantage of this, but on the first lap Jack was attacked by Arvid Lindblad, who started fifth, and there was a very tough contact between their cars in turn 5 of the track.
Because of this, Crawford lost his position, and his car was damaged, as it was clear that fragments of carbon fiber flew in different directions.
On the third lap, Maini continued to lead, but he was already pressed by Mini, and yellow flags appeared on the track – the reason was the stop of Keane Shields' car, which Raphael Villagomes crashed into and sent into a U-turn.
After a couple of laps, the yellow flags were removed, the fight continued, and at that time the stewards' decision became known, issuing Lindblad a 10-second penalty for a collision with Browning. Arvid continued to ride third, almost five seconds behind the leader.
Maini and Mini have the same sponsor, although they compete for different teams, so the race was led by two identical-looking bright pink cars with large logos of the Austrian company BWT (the title sponsor of Alpine F1), increasingly breaking away from the rest of the peloton. At the same time, Gabriele drove all the time, literally burying himself in the Dallara gearbox of the Indian racer, and from the Prema pit wall he was egged on: "Attack, you're obviously faster!"
On lap 11, the yellow flags reappeared, but this time the matter was not limited to them, and the safety car pulled out. This happened due to the fact that Oliver Goethe unsuccessfully attacked Joshua Durksen before the hairpin, and the car of the Paraguayan racer AIX Racing suffered quite serious damage and stopped on the track after a couple of turns.
The restart was given on lap 15, when exactly half the distance of the short Saturday race was behind. Maini acted very competently, after all, he has experience, immediately tried to break away from the Mini at least a little, and he succeeded - on the next lap the interval between their cars increased to one and a half seconds.
The top ten at this stage of the race looked like this: Maini – Mini – Lindblad – Browning – Crawford – Fershor – Montoya – Fornaroli – Goethe –Dann. At the same time, Goethe had just managed to outrun Victor Martin with a dashing maneuver, after which the Frenchman had to go to the pits for a new front wing, and the stewards became interested in Oliver's actions. We have to admit that Martin's streak of bad luck continues.
By lap 19, Mini had reduced the gap from Maini to 0.5 seconds, but did not try to attack, but Browning was already pushing Lindblad hard, trying to force the Red Bull youth driver to make a mistake. At the same time, they were already 12 seconds away from the leading duo – it seemed that Lindblad was holding back the rest of the peloton, but Browning was still hesitant to take decisive action on the narrow urban highway.
On lap 23, the stewards announced the verdict against Oliver Goethe: he also received a 10-second penalty for being too reckless when overtaking Martin. "Too" – because the same fine was issued to Lindblad, and they are both part of the Red Bull youth program.
There were five laps left before the finish, and it looked like the tires on Gabriele Mini's car were starting to give out, in any case, he was falling further and further behind Kush Maini, and it looked like the Italian had accepted the situation and was not claiming more than 2nd place. At the same time, he was already caught up by Lindblad, who was fined, but this did not mean that he would not attack.
But I didn't attack, I didn't wait for the right moment, and then the race ended. Kush Maini calmly finished first, no one caught up with him, and this is only the second victory of the Indian in Formula 2 and the first this season. By the way, he had never been higher than 6th place in Monaco in two and a half years in F2.
The second place was taken by Gabriele Mini, who also reached the podium for the first time in his debut season in F2, and Luke Browning inherited the third place after the Lindblad penalty, while the punished driver of the Campos team fell back to the eighth line of the sprint protocol. Jack Crawford, Richard Fershor, Sebastian Montoya and Leonard Fornaroli also scored important points.
We remind you that at the end of the sprint, prize points are awarded only to the top eight. The unlucky Victor Martin, who will start from second position tomorrow, nevertheless distinguished himself: after a forced visit to the pits, he recorded the best lap on fresh tires.
Sprint results
Pilot
Team
Difference
1. K.Mining
DAMS
44:57.639
2. G.Mini
Prema
+3.705
3. L.Browning
Hitech GP
+7.299
4. D.Crawford
DAMS
+10.493
5. Fershor river
MP Motorsport
+11.257
6. S.Montoya
Prema
+11.937
7. L.Fornaroli
Invicta Racing
+13.234
8. A.Lindblad
Campos Racing
+13.766
9. A.Dunn
Rodin Motorsport
+27.220
10. R.Miata
ART Grand Prix
+28.677
11. P.Stanek
Invicta Racing
+31.687
12. Fr. Goethe
MP Motorsport
+31.981
13. M.Esterson
Trident
+33.194
14. A.Kordil
Rodin Motorsport
+43.613
15. D.Beganovich
Hitech GP
+47.785
16. S.Megetunif
Trident
+1'01.058
17. V. Martin
ART Grand Prix
+1'03.597
18. R.Villagomes
Van Amersfoort Racing
+1'11.319
– X.Marty
Campos Racing
The gathering
– D.Durksen
AIX Racing
The gathering
– D. Bennett
Van Amersfoort Racing
The gathering
– K.Shields
AIX Racing
The gathering
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