Young Frenchman Isack Hadjar, aged 16 only, won Race 1 of the Formula Regional by Alpine on Saturday, starting from pole position and leading from start to finish in front of his teammate at R-Ace Racing, Zane Maloney, from Barbados, who finished seven seconds back despite a last safety car having nullified the efforts of Hadjar to take cover.

It was a total demonstration for the young Parisian who went through karting then followed the courses of the famous Winfield driving school (winner of the Winfield Trophy 2019) and finished 3rd last year in the French Formula 4 Championship. He never doubted, he made no mistake, so he deservedly stepped on the podium of the princely lodge to be presented with a superb trophy from the hands of Michel Ferry, the vice-president in charge of Sport for Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM).

Behind Hadjar and Maloney, who aspires to succeed one day Lewis Hamilton, from the Grenada island next to Barbados, a nice duel pitted Estonian Paul Aron, currently 2nd in the championship and closely followed by Mercedes, against another Frenchman supported by Alpine, Hadrien David, who had set the best time in free practice Thursday morning.

David tried everything but Aron didn’t give up and deserved his podium. Young Spaniard Mari Boya started 9th and finished 9th scoring a couple of points, ahead of 18 boys. She will be 5th on the grid on Sunday morning for Race 2 and aiming at a podium which would be historic in the Principality. Last but not least, the leader of the championship before Monaco, Switzerland’s Grégoire Saucy, had an anonymous race. He was stuck in 10th place when he went straight at Sainte-Dévote, which ended his hopes of scoring a consolation point behind Mari Boya. He will have a second opportunity to shine on Sunday morning.

Frenchman Théo Pourchaire (ART GP), starting on pole position, won Race 3 of the Formula 2 schedule, the Feature Race (42 laps) without a hitch, becoming the youngest winner in the history of Formula 2 (ex-GP2) while succeeding on the prize list to another Frenchman, Anthoine Hubert, the winner in 2019 and then tragically killed in an accident at Spa-Francorchamps.

Pourchaire, who debuts in F2 this year, had well prepared his case by finishing 7th in Race 1 on Friday, then 4th in Race 2 this Saturday morning. He made no mistake whatsoever and waited until Lap 30 to change tires, at a time when his lead was enough for his team not to panic and do whatever it took, in order, without losing any time.

This was not the case with the Prema team of his main rival, Russian Robert Shwartzman, who missed this crucial and obligatory tire change when the driver, for most of the race, had put intense pressure. on Pourchaire, staying one or two seconds behind him, at the mercy of a potential mistake that never happened.

Because of the failure of his team, the Russian had to settle for 4th place, behind Pourchaire, Australian Oscar Piastri (Prema) who finished three seconds behind the French ART GP driver, for his second podium in two days, just like Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (Uni-Virtuosi) who finished 14 seconds back. Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Uni-Virtuosi) is still leading the series thanks to his win in the Sprint Race on Friday. He waited until the last moment to change his tires and finished 5^th. He now leads the title chase ahead of Piastri and Pourchaire: the French rookie is now 3rd and an obvious title candidate, in only his first Formula 2 season.

It was a perfect day for the French and Monegasque colors: pole position for Charles Leclerc in F1 and two Marseillaises for Pourchaire in F2 and Isack Hadjar in Formula Alpine. Roll on Sunday for the last day of this already historic weekend, from all points of view …

There will be three more occasions to celebrate, on Sunday, in the streets of the Principality: the 78th Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, with a Monegasque driver in pole position for the first time since Louis Chiron in 1936, long before the World Championship was created in 1950. Charles Leclerc, the local hero, will start at 3 pm for 78 laps with Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) next to him.

Two other races are planned, as curtain-raisers in the morning: the first round of the 2021 season in the glamourous Porsche Supercup (10:30 am, 17 laps), with Dorian Boccolacci on the second row, and Race 2 of Formula Regional by Alpine (12:00 pm, 30 minutes), with three French drivers in the race including Isack Hadjar, who won Race 1 on Saturday, and two very fast young girls, Spaniard Mari Boya and Swiss Lena Bühler.

It will surely be another day to remember for motor racing fans in Monaco.

Young Frenchman Isack Hadjar will start from pole position Saturday morning (10:15 am) for Race 1 of the Formula Regional by Alpine, while Zane Maloney, a driver from Barbados, took pole position Friday morning for Race 2, scheduled for Sunday at noon. The R-Ace Racing team, which acts as ART Grand Prix Junior Team, made the double with two of their drivers, in the two groups of single-seaters defined to distribute the 33 drivers entered, including two girls. In Group A, 16-year-old Hadjar clocked his fastest lap in 1: 29.727, ahead of Estonian Paul Aron, currently 2nd in the series, who is closely followed by Mercedes. Young Spaniard Mari Boya took a superb 5th place, faster than many boys in both groups. She will definitely aim at an historical podium in the Principality.

In Group B, Maloney, 17, the British Formula 4 champion in 2019, did a little better than another Frenchman, Hadrien David, who had set the fastest time in free practice on Thursday. The leader of the series, Switzerland’s Grégoire Saucy, had to satisfy with 6th place, while his female compatriot, Lena Bühler, did not manage to qualify. The two races will be two ideal occasions to shine … in order to be spotted by Formula 2 and Formula 1 team bosses.

The defending Porsche Supercup champion, Larry ten Voorde, will start from pole position Sunday morning for the first round of the 2021 edition and the return to Monaco of the most spectacular of the single-brand formulas, created in 1993 by the German manufacturer. In his superb 510hp Porsche 911 GT3 sporting the famous Oranje made famous by Dutch footballers, ten Voorde dominated the qualifications and completed his fastest lap in 1: 33.099, 175 thousandths better than Jaxon Evans, the New Zealander from the Martinet by Almeras team.

The top trio of this beautiful qualifying session was completed by Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci, the former Formula 2 driver who starts in Supercup after having shone in the Porsche Carrera Cup last year. He will therefore start on the second row, Sunday morning at 10:30 am, with a real chance of podium and alongside German Christopher Zoechling, another serious customer.

Behind them, Turkey’s Ayhancan Güven will start next to another French driver, Florian Latorre. It was a really tough session, as ten drivers finished in less than one second, including another Frenchman, Steven Palette, in 10th place. There will be 8 Supercup rounds again this year, always as curtain-raisers for F1 on Sundays, and always in Europe.

Guanyu Zhou made history this Friday in Monaco by claiming the first ever win by a Chinese driver in the streets of the Principality. He also strengthened his early lead of the F2 Drivers’ Championship by winning Sprint Race 1 (30 laps), surviving a late Safety Car to win over Brazilian team-mate Felipe Drugovich, who benefitted from Denmark’s Christian Lundgaard retirement from second with mechanical issues.

The podium was completed by Israel’s driver Roy Nissany, his first ever podium in F2, after the DAMS’ racer held off Campos’ Ralph Boschung until the chequered flag. Russian Jüri Vips came on top of a race-long  battle with Dan Ticktum for 5th, while French poleman for Race 3, Théo Pourchaire, continued his hot form by making up three places to 7th, ahead of Prema Racing’s Oscar Piastri.

One of just four drivers to have experienced the streets of Monaco in a Formula 2 car before, Zhou enjoyed a near-perfect getaway off the line, coolly pulling off into the distance when the lights went out. The Chinese racer was expecting to go head-to-head with his UNI-Virtuosi teammate Drugovich, but instead it was his Alpine Academy rival, Lundgaard, who was breathing down his neck at the exit of Turn 1. The ART ace had taken the inside curb to pass Drugovich for second at the start.

Having bridged a 3s gap between himself and Zhou, Lundgaard’s podium was suddenly under threat as smoke bellowed from the back of his ART. The Dane slowed significantly and began to drop down the order, before coming to a stop and bringing out a yellow flag. Also eyeing a maiden rostrum in F2, Boschung, after securing his best qualifying position at this level on Thursday,was pushing his Campos in pursuit of Nissany but couldn’t bridge the gap and settled for P4, his highest finish in F2.

Qualifying on the front row on Thursday, Robert Shwarztman experienced contrasting fortunes, pushing too hard and whacking the wall of Casino Square. The Russian limped back to the pits with half a front wing and attempted to get back out, but was eventually forced to retire.

The points’ scorers all stayed out of trouble until the closing lap, but just behind them Marcus Armstrong was closing in on Jehan Daruvala. The DAMS’ driver deemed the move a risk worth taking and dramatically dove past the Carlin driver at the finish line. He will then be on reverse grid pole for Sprint Race 2, early Saturday morning.

The only Frenchman entered in Formula 2 this year, and a rookie as well, Théo Pourchaire took a sensational pole position for Race 3, on Thursday, and could well be leading the pack for Sainte Dévote, Saturday at 17:15. In a beautiful manner, in his very last qualifying lap, by clocking a superb 1: 20. 985 which then revealed to be untouchable by the drivers involved in the second qualifying session.

The ART Grand Prix driver was rather discreet in free practice, in order to properly learn the Monegasque circuit on which he had never raced. This cautious bit of training paid off and he was half a second ahead of Australian Oscar Piastri (Prema Racing) and Russian Juri Vips (Hitech GP).

FIA Formula 3 runner-up last year, for a handful of points, Théo from Grasse, the perfume city, only had to wait for the result of the other session, led until two minutes from the end by Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Uni-Virtuosi), the championship leader after the opening of the F2 season in Bahrain. Until Russia’s Robert Shwartzman (Prema Racing), who had set the best time in free practice and finished 4th of the series last year, with 4 wins, achieved his best lap in 1: 21.403, just ahead of Briton Dan Ticktum (Carlin) that he had already beaten this morning in free practice.

This is the first pole position for 17-year-old Pourchaire in Formula 2, after an 8th and 6th place in Bahrain at the start of the season. A real feat for this absolute “rookie”, a member of the Sauber Drivers Academy. French fans will surely follow him closely during the three F2 races scheduled for this weekend in the streets of the Principality. Starting tomorrow at noon …

To kick off the 2021 edition of the Porsche Supercup, this Thursday in Monaco, there were 28 Porsche 911 GT3s on the track, headed by defending champion Larry ten Voorde. The Dutchman tried to enforce his status as outgoing champion and thought he had succeeded when he completed a lap in 1: 34.165, owed just 30 thousandths better than Dylan Pereira. Then the Luxemburger from BWT Lechner Racing got back in front, in 1: 34.062, just before the session was definitively interrupted, five minutes from its end, by a big touch immediately dealt with by the ACM marshals.

Behind Pereira and Ten Voorde, Turkey’s Ayhancan Güven, entered by the same team as Pereira, took 3rd place in this session, followed at three tenths by Dorian Boccolacci (4th), the former F2 driver from France who debuts in Supercup after having shone in the Porsche Carrera Cup last year, in his home country. Another French driver entered the Top 10, Florian Latorre (9th), in his Porsche aligned by CLRT, the team recently founded by driver Côme Ledogar.

Qualifying will take place Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. and Sunday morning’s race at 10:30 a.m. promises a lot, as six drivers completed the free practice session grouped together in the same second. There will be 8 Supercup rounds again this year, still raising the curtain on F1, and still in Europe. The Porsche Supercup was created in 1993 and was then run by Jost Capito, who is now the new Williams F1 Team Principal.

Frenchman Hadrien David clocked the best time in the free practice session for Formula Regional by Alpine, early on Thursday morning, aboard his 280hp and 665- kilos (driver included) single-seater powered by a Renault engine. A member of R-Ace Racing, the Junior Team for ART Grand Prix, the Royan-native is only 17 and won the title last year in the French Formula 4 Championship.

It was his first outing in the streets of the Principality and he was very impressive, his best lap in 1 :30.202. This proved two tenths of a second better than Britain’s Alex Quinn (Arden Motorsport) and half a second quicker than Italy’s Gabriele Mini (ART Grand Prix). And this time is equivalent to the best times for F1s of the 70s which raced here during Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, at the end of April. This is very promising in the perspective of the one and only qualifying session, early Friday morning, and for both races scheduled this weekend, Saturday (10 :15) and Sunday morning (12 :00).

Russia’s Robert Shwartzman (Prema Racing) has already shown, in Formula 2 free practice Thursday morning, that his experience could prove useful this weekend in Monaco, where three races are scheduled on the F2 agenda. Last year, he finished 4th of the series, with 4 wins, which was an impressive result for a rookie. The year before, he was crowned FIA F3 Champion, for his first and only season in the category.

With a fastest lap in 1 :22.041, the St Petersbourg native was half a second faster than Britain’s Dan Ticktum (Carlin), followed on the timesheet of this session by another Russian driver, the very promising Juri Vips (Hitech GP). One of their compatriots, Gianluca Petecof (Campos), had a major issue when his engine blew up at Sainte-Dévote, producing a huge smoke cloud when he tried to continue driving towards the Casino. He then stopped his car in a safe place, surrounded by ACM marshals who proved very efficient, as always.

The Orange army is famous in the whole world of motorsport and had to act several times Thursday morning, always with total commitment and efficiency, in order to take care of single-seaters in deep trouble. The Chinese leader of the series, Guanyu Zhou (Uni-Virtuosi), had to be happy with the 9th time of the session, almost one and a half second slower than Shwartzman. Not very encouraging for him before qualifying scheduled for today, between 1 :20 and 2 :00, for two groups of 11 cars.