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Thanks to a finale worthy of roulette at Casino de Monte-Carlo, Australian Zak O’Sullivan (ART Grand Prix), starting from 15th on the grid, won the main Formula 2 race on Sunday morning, beating Frenchman Isack Hadjar (Campos Racing) who ran a perfect race from start to finish. The podium was completed by Estonian Paul Aron (HiTech) at the end of an eventful race.
Dutch poleman Richard Verschoor (Trident) got off to a very good start, ahead of Hadjar and Aron, but the other Frenchman entered, Victor Martins (ART GP), placed on the front row next to Verschoor, was unable to take advantage and found himself 15th at the end of the 1st lap. There were then a number of good battles between some very hot drivers in the middle of the field, such as Argentina’s Franco Colapinto Italy’s Andrea Antonelli and Englishman Oliver Bearman, who has already scored points in F1 the day he replaced Carlos Sainz at Ferrari for the Saudi Grand Prix.
It wasn’t until the first series of pit stops that the standings were turned upside down, with some choosing to stop earlier, like Verschoor, and others later. But the Dutchman finally stopped twice, the second on lap 29, and was forced to retire with a heavy heart due to a mechanical problem. With a dozen laps to go, the way was clear for Hadjar, who held off Aron to the end and thought he had the race won when he started the 41st and penultimate lap.
But then two of his rivals from the back of the grid, Joshua Durksen and Roman Stanek, collided on the Beau Rivage climb, triggering a virtual safety car (with no safety car on track), which forced everyone to slow down… while O’Sullivan rushed into the pits to comply with the regulations by making his compulsory pit stop to change tyres. When he emerged from the pits, he was ahead of the rest of the field, slowing down on the straight. Bingo!
On the podium, Hadjar gradually regained his smile, but he was furious at this twist of fate. He is the moral winner of this race, five years after the late Anthoine Hubert and three years after Théo Pourchaire from Grasse, who remains, until further notice, the last French winner to date in an F2 race in Monaco.
