Formula 2: The sprint in Monaco was won by Noël Léon.

      The violations committed by some drivers during yesterday's Formula 2 qualifying in Monaco did not go unpunished. Joshua Durksen, Kush Maini, and John Bennett received penalties. Durksen lost three positions at the start of both races of the weekend for impeding a competitor, who was Maini. However, the Indian driver from ART was also penalized for colliding with Laurence van Hoepen at Turn 10 exiting the tunnel: the stewards deemed him responsible for the crash, and he too lost three positions today and will lose three more tomorrow. In Bennett's case, the stewards limited themselves to removing his best time – as the British Trident driver's mistake was the sole reason the qualifying had to be interrupted with red flags.

      After all these changes, the Saturday sprint saw Mexican Noel Leon, a rookie from Campos Racing, starting from pole, with Roman Bilinski from DAMS beginning the race from the second row, and Gabriel Mini, the leader of the youth series standings, and Durksen in the second row of the grid. The third row was occupied by formidable competitors – Dino Beganovich, a student at the Ferrari racing academy, and Martinius Stenshorn, the winner of the main race at the Canadian weekend. By the way, following the sprint in Montreal, he also made it to the podium, and the Norwegian driver from Rodin Motorsport was surely dreaming of repeating that success in Monaco.

      The drivers had to complete 30 laps, and it was interesting to see how many cars would make it to the finish, considering that in today's short F3 race, five drivers retired from the distance, including four after a pile-up at the start. But it seems that the Formula 2 teams learned from this and strictly instructed their drivers to take care of their equipment, so today's sprint practically turned into a procession and was frankly boring.

      Leon got off to a very good start, maintaining the lead, while Mini tried to attack Bilinski immediately, but the Pole managed to hold his position, although he locked up the brakes in the first corner and slightly damaged his tires. Some jostling at the start on such a track is inevitable, but it was limited to light contacts between cars – one could say, unlike F3, there were no incidents.

      In the early laps, the leading group of drivers was racing closely together, with gaps not exceeding half a second, but already on the second lap, Oliver Goethe for some reason turned into the pits, although it is not necessary to do so in a sprint. Naturally, he returned to the track in last place. The drivers continued to lap after lap, with no events occurring on the track, and the gaps remained roughly at the same level, but this only applied to the top five, as Stenshorn, who was running sixth, somehow fell seven seconds behind Beganovich.

      When exactly a third of the distance was behind, it became known that the stewards had decided to impose a 10-second penalty on Laurence van Hoepen: the Dutch Trident driver clearly cut the first chicane at the start, gained an advantage, but did not give the position back. However, he was still only running in 15th place anyway. Behind him were Mari Boya and Colton Herta, who still looked somewhat unconvincing in F2.

      The first half of the sprint passed almost without any events, and in this regard, one could understand Gabriel Mini: the championship leader was relatively calmly running in third place, hoping to earn a few points for sure. After all, there were drivers ahead who posed no particular threat to him, as Leon trailed him in the standings by 24 points, and Bilinski by as much as 55.

      But on the 17th lap, Ritomo Miyata began to actively pressure Tasanapol Intaravichai, but the Thai driver was still holding onto his 11th position, although the gap between their cars at times shrank to a minimum, and one could expect new attack attempts from the Japanese driver.

      On the 22nd lap, Miyata finally managed to overtake Intaravichai at the exit of Turn 11, after which he set off in pursuit of Nicola Zolo and began to pressure him. Campos Racing asked their driver to push harder, which he did, immediately setting the best lap of the sprint.

      On the next lap, Mari Boya skillfully maneuvered past van Hoepen in the hairpin, while Oliver Goethe returned to the pits and retired. It seems that Intaravichai met the same fate shortly after – in both cases, it was a technical failure.

      With fewer laps remaining to the finish, it seemed that most of the sprint participants had already given up hope of improving their positions and were just driving in a relatively calm manner. Nevertheless, three laps before the finish, Leon had almost lapped Bennett and soon overtook him.

      On the same 28th lap, Sebastian Montoya made a mistake while braking before Turn 10, locked up his brakes, cut the chicane, but continued to run in 13th place.

      Overall, in such a calm manner, with almost no bright events on the track, the Saturday race concluded. Noel Leon claimed his second victory in F2 – and in Monaco, so he was genuinely happy. And one can fully understand him, especially since he climbed to second place in the individual standings.

      Roman Bilinski finished second, and Gabriel Mini third, adding six more points to his 57. Among his closest rivals, Stenshorn earned points today, managing to move up to third place in the championship, overtaking Zolo, as well as Kamara, who rounded out the top eight and received one point for it. However, Nicola also did not leave empty-handed – he is entitled to a bonus point for the fastest lap.

      

       Driver

       Team

       Laps

      

      

      

      

       1. N.Leon

       Campos Racing

       30

      

      

       2. R.Bilinski

       DAMS Lucas Oil

       30

      

      

       3. G.Mini

       MP Motorsport

       30

      

      

       4. D.Durksen

       Invicta Racing

       30

      

      

       5. D.Beganovich

       DAMS Lucas Oil

       30

      

      

       6. M.Stenshorn

       Rodin Motorsport

       30

      

      

       7. K.Maini

       ART Grand Prix

       30

      

      

       8. R.Kamara

       Invicta Racing

       30

      

      

       9. A.Dunn

       Rodin Motorsport

       30

      

      

       10. N.Zolo

       Campos Racing

       30

      

      

       11. R.Miata

       Hitech

       30

      

      

       12. N.Varrone

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       30

      

      

       13. S.Montoya

       Prema Racing

       30

      

      

       14. M.Boya

       Prema Racing

       30

      

      

       15. L.van Hoepen

       Trident

       30

      

      

       16. C.Herta

       Hitech

       30

      

      

       17. R.Villagomez

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       29

      

      

       18. E.Fittipaldi

       AIX Racing

       29

      

      

       19. K.Shields

       AIX Racing

       29

      

      

       20. D.Bennett

       Trident

       29

      

      

        – T.Intaravichai

       ART Grand Prix

       26

      

      

        – O.Goethe

       MP Motorsport

       20