F2 Monaco: Felipe Drugovich extends lead with feature race win
29th May 2022MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich put in a commanding performance for Formula 2’s Monaco feature race and nursed his super-soft tyres home after a long stint.
How the feature race unfolded…
It was a perfect start for both the pole sitter, Drugovich and ART Theo Pourchaire as the led P1 and P2 into the first corner, Sainte Devote. Prema’s Dennis Hauger, made four positions at the start of the race before he stole P5 away from Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi as the pack raced through Massnet.
It was well behaved throughout the opening laps of the race. Drugovich remained out in the lead ahead of Pourchaire and Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan. On the other hand, Hauger who was on the alternate strategy (starting on the super soft tyres) placed Hitech’s Juri Vips under pressure.
Dams’ Ayumu Iwasa and Carlin’s Logan Sargeant were the first drivers to make their mandatory stops, at the end of lap eight. Both drivers started the race on the super softs and changed to the soft tyres in their stop. However, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Amuary Cordeel suffered a poor pit stop as he stalled his car in his pit box.
Race control noted an incident on the starting grid which regarded Dams’ Roy Nissany. The likely infringement was when he tried to jump-start his stalled F2 car as the track marshals pushed him to the pit lane. However, the starting grid issue wasn’t Nissany’s only problem as he was also noted for a pit lane infringement.
The starting grid infringment, for Nissany, was put under investigaion and he was quickly issued with a drive through penalty.
By the end of lap 12, all of the drivers on the alternate strategy had completed their mandatory stops and were set to finish the race on the soft tyres.
On lap 16, Nissany returned to the pit lane soon after he completed his drive through penalty and became the first driver to retire from the race.
Cordeel became the second retirement of the race as he clapped the barrier, on the exit of the final corner, on lap 19. As a result of making contact with the barrier, the VAR driver was forced to retire.
This allowed Drugovich and Pourchaire to run straight into the pit lane as the safety car was deployed. However, MP Motorsport suffered a poor stop which put the championship leader at risk of losing track position but ART soon had their own issues.
But, the jepordy didn’t stop there. The track marshals pushed Cordeel’s car into the pit lane and this manoeuvre blocked Drugovich and Pourchaire from rejoining the track straight away. Thankfully, the two drivers didn’t lose any track positions when they finally returned to the circuit.
At the same time, Vips jumped Doohan in the pit stops, during the safety car period, to take P3.
The safety car was soon called back into the pit lane.
The safety car was soon redeployed, on lap 23, as Lawson made contact with MP’s Clement Novalak as they exited the grand hotel hairpin. After the brief contact, the MP driver was forced to retire on the side of the track.
At the end of lap 25, the safety car finally returned to the pit lane for the second time.
With five laps to go, Pourchaire kept the pressure on Drugovich in a bid to force an unforced error from the Brazilian. During this time, Lawson ventured back to the pit lane as he tip-toed around the Monegasque circuit and retired from the race.
On the final lap, Iwasa and Trident’s Calan Williams found themselves in the barrier at the grand hotel hairpin just before Drugovich secured the race win.
That’s it for the article: F2 Monaco: Felipe Drugovich extends lead with feature race win! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula Two here:
- F2 Monaco: Dennis Hauger secures sprint race win as Jake Hughes stalls
- F2 Monaco Qualifying: Liam Lawson on pole after Drugovich crashes
- F2 Spanish Grand Prix: Felipe Drugovich takes max points in feature race win
- Spain GP: Felipe Drugovich tops F2 practice
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
