Formula 2: Fornaroli won the home sprint at Monza.

      As could be expected after yesterday’s Formula 2 qualifying at Monza, the starting grid for Saturday’s sprint underwent some changes. The incident caused by Richard Verschoor, which forced the session to be stopped with red flags, did not go unnoticed by the stewards.

      The Dutch MP Motorsport driver was penalised, his best time was deleted, and as a result Richard will start Sunday’s race not from 2nd but from 14th. He had started the Saturday sprint from that same position.

      Verschoor was third in the drivers’ standings and is considered one of the genuine title contenders, but this penalty will undoubtedly complicate his task in the remaining races of the season.

      Today the sprint pole went to Swedish driver Dino Beganovic, an Hitech driver and a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and Sami Megetinif, who had set the 10th fastest time yesterday, started from second. But from third started Leonardo Fornaroli, the leader of the junior series’ standings, and for him the Monza round is his home race, so the Italian Invicta driver was determined to make up for the pole he lost in yesterday’s strange qualifying.

      Before the start Leonardo categorically stated that he intended to fight for the win, although it was clear his rivals were not going to make that easy for him.

      The start was relatively calm, but already in the first chicane Fornaroli passed Megetinif and charged after Beganovic. Verschoor gained a couple of places on the opening lap, Alex Dunn did too, but on the second lap Kush Maini, who was trying to attack him at Curva Grande, lost control of his car, it spun on the track, ran into the gravel trap and came to rest there.

      The safety car was deployed, and the stewards began to review the incident, suspecting that Dunn had not left the rival room on the track.

      At the restart Fornaroli attacked Beganovic into the first corner but clearly overdid it, locked the brakes and cut the chicane. Leonardo kept second and continued trying to pass Dino, but so far he could not bring it home. Meanwhile they were being closed down by Arvid Lindblad, the Campos driver, who had earlier passed Joshua Dürksen.

      On lap 8 Fornaroli managed to break Beganovic’s resistance and take the lead, after which he began to extend his gap. Already on the next lap Lindblad repeated the same move using DRS on the start-finish straight and also passed Beganovic.

      No less interesting events were happening behind them: Dunn attacked Megetinif and passed the Trident driver before the first corner, but Megetinif reacted somewhat clumsily and his car blocked Alex’s line on the exit of the chicane. A heavy contact occurred, after which both shot off along the run-off; while Dunn was able to stay on track, although he lost at least ten places, Megetinif reached the pits and remained there.

      On lap 11 Victor Martins pulled into the pit lane – the run of bad luck for the French ART driver continued, and today the front wing of his car had been damaged in the opening laps, but only now did he have to visit the pits to replace the nose cone.

      On lap 14 Oliver Goethe tried to attack Beganovic for third but could not hold the outside line into the first corner and his car spun. He managed to return to the track but only in 16th.

      Meanwhile Dunn complained to the team that his car had sustained serious damage, but he was instructed to stay out because, above all, he needed to at least get to the finish.

      By lap 16 Verschoor had already climbed to sixth and was intent on passing Roman Stanek, who was closing the top five. But he was not the only one making up places: Sebastian Montoya was also having a great race — after starting from a distant 21st he had already moved up to 10th.

      On lap 18 Verschoor went for a move on Stanek, but at the same time yellow flags appeared on track again — this time because Max Esterson’s Dallara was smoking and the American had stopped at the side.

      The yellow flags were replaced by a virtual safety car. On lap 19 the race resumed and Verschoor immediately made a successful pass on Stanek. Now Richard was running fifth, but Joshua Dürksen was still several seconds ahead, and there were only two laps to go.

      The stewards announced that Beganovic had been issued a five-second penalty for aggressive behaviour on track during the VSC period. That meant Dürksen would move up to third.

      And that was how the race finished — Leonardo Fornaroli saw the chequered flag 1.6 seconds ahead of Arvid Lindblad, who, credit to him, had tried to catch his rival until the last lap.

      Fornaroli significantly extended his lead in the drivers’ standings, especially since Jack Crawford scored no points today. This is the Italian’s fourth win of the season and his second in a row, so his title chances have noticeably improved.

      Verschoor managed to recover ten places and finish fourth, which in the Saturday sprint is worth 5 points — therefore he leapfrogged Crawford and moved up to second in the championship.

      Results are being prepared...