Formula 2: Noel Leon won the sprint in Montreal
Speaking about yesterday's qualifying in Formula 2, we mentioned that the Canadian stage of the youth series promises various kinds of surprises, and they began on the very first day of the weekend.
The qualifying results were somewhat adjusted due to penalties received by various drivers, but the main outcomes remained unchanged: on Sunday, Lawrence van Hoepen will start from pole, while Gabriele Mini started the Saturday sprint from the first position.
The penalties were mainly related to drivers interfering with each other during the qualifying heats, and this is not surprising. Firstly, youth is characterized by a certain hotheadedness, which means that F2 drivers, in their pursuit of results, do not always pay due attention to what is happening on the track around their cars. Secondly, at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit, all of them are competing for the first time, and the complexity of the Canadian circuit should not be underestimated, with a lack of experience often leading to mistakes.
It is also worth adding that Tasanapol Intafuwasak, a driver from Thailand competing for ART, will not participate in the further events of the weekend – this is a consequence of yesterday's crash, as the medics prohibited him from starting.
When the traffic lights went out, Mini made an excellent start and immediately tried to create a gap from the rest of the pack, while behind his car, there were several contacts in the first corners, but it ended without consequences.
Rafael Villagomez, who started second, immediately lost several positions, while Joshua Dyrksen managed to move up to second place, but Noel Leon regained his position. Dyrksen attempted to counterattack, but it ended with him going off the track, so the Paraguayan driver had to postpone his active actions until the 4th lap. It was then that his attack was successful, but by that time Mini had managed to extend his lead to almost two seconds.
At the end of the pack, Sebastian Montoya did not start the race well; his car was spun in one of the chicanes, and the son of the former Formula 1 driver fell back to the last position.
On the 7th lap, exiting the last corner, Leon acted more decisively than Dyrksen, chose the right trajectory, and managed to overtake his opponent thanks to a quicker acceleration, returning to second position.
Soon it became known that Nico Varone, the Argentine driver from Van Amersfoort Racing, received a Stop&Go penalty for violating the start procedure and immediately went to serve it.
On the next lap, yellow flags appeared, after which the safety car was deployed – due to an incident at the 10th corner involving John Bennett, Martinus Stenshorn, and Nikola Tsolov. As a result, the British driver's car was spun, the engine stalled, and it remained on the side of the track, while the other two continued moving. Meanwhile, Tsolov's Dallara, a Campos Racing driver and participant in the Red Bull youth program, suffered damage to its front wing.
Of course, Gabriele Mini's advantage was neutralized, and at the restart, which was given on the 15th lap, the top six looked like this: the Italian was leading, followed by Leon, Dyrksen, Villagomez, Stenshorn, and Tsolov.
At the restart, Noel immediately went on the attack, levelled with Mini's car, but Gabriele did not flinch under pressure and maintained his lead. Almost immediately, it became known about the penalty received by Dyrksen for the incident with Villagomez – this announcement came just as the two were battling for position.
On the next lap, in the group of drivers they were in, there was a position exchange: Villagomez moved up to 3rd position, while Dyrksen lost a couple of positions and was now in 5th behind Stenshorn. Then Joshua's car was nudged and sent spinning by Alex Dunn – debris flew in different directions, and the yellow Dallara with number 2 came to a halt on the side of the track.
Dyrksen sarcastically thanked Dunn over the radio for such a maneuver.
The safety car was deployed again, but just seconds before the incident that caused the yellow flags, Leon managed to overtake Mini and became the new race leader. Meanwhile, the stewards' verdict was announced: Dunn received a 10-second penalty for the collision with Dyrksen. But that's not all: for the same violation regarding Bennett, 10 seconds will also be added to Tsolov's result.
At the restart, Noel Leon acted very wisely, accelerated clearly better than Mini, and soon pulled away from his pursuers by more than three seconds, but on the next lap, two incidents occurred on the track: Villagomez made a mistake and crashed his car exiting the 4th corner, while Kin Shields and Varone collided deep in the pack. The Brit was forced to retire as a result.
A virtual safety car was briefly introduced, but there were only two laps left until the finish at that moment. Leon led with an advantage of almost four seconds and soon saw the checkered flag first, becoming the first Mexican to win a race in Formula 2.
Gabriele Mini took second place, while Martinus Stenshorn climbed to the third step of the podium. Colton Herta just missed out on the prize positions – after the penalties received by Dunn and Tsolov, he moved up to 9th position, although he started 19th.
By the way, Mini was not particularly upset about finishing second, as he became the new leader of the personal standings. Of course, he would have been happier with a victory, but the Italian driver from MP Motorsport has already earned 8 points, and he will have another chance to shine tomorrow, and he will definitely take today's experience into account. By the way, none of his main rivals in the sprint particularly distinguished themselves.
Driver
Team
Laps
1. N.Leon
Campos Racing
28
2. G.Mini
MP Motorsport
28
3. M.Stenshorn
Rodin Motorsport
28
4. L.van Hoepen
Trident
28
5. E.Fittipaldi
AIX Racing
28
6. D.Beganovich
DAMS Lucas Oil
28
7. R.Camara
Invicta Racing
28
8. R.Bilinski
DAMS Lucas Oil
28
9. C.Herta
Hitech
28
10. O.Göte
MP Motorsport
28
11. R.Miata
Hitech
28
12. K.Maini
ART Grand Prix
28
13. A.Dunn
Rodin Motorsport
28
14. N.Tsolov
Campos Racing
28
15. M.Boya
Prema Racing
28
16. N.Varone
Van Amersfoort Racing
28
17. S.Montoya
Prema Racing
26
– R.Villagomez
Van Amersfoort Racing
24
– K.Shields
AIX Racing
24
– D.Dyrksen
Invicta Racing
17
– D.Bennett
Trident
09
– T.Intafuwasak
ART Grand Prix
00
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