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Oliver Rowland has overturned his traditional poor luck at the Circuit de Monaco to record an emphatic victory in this afternoon’s FIA Formula 2 Feature Race, flying around the fabled streets of the Principality to grab the top step of the podium ahead of Artem Markelov and Nobuharu Matsushita. 

The Briton, who after the race admitted that he had little expectation for the race given his previously disappointing record in Monaco, came back from a relatively slow start to grab the win against the odds, closing the championship gap to leader Charles Leclerc, who failed to finish the race, to just 3 points in the process. 

When the lights went out poleman Leclerc just held off front row starter Alexander Albon into Ste Devote, with Rowland denying a fast starting Matsushita, who blasted past Markelov at the start, as they headed up the hill towards Casino Square. The front two were in a race of their own as they swapped fastest laps and build a big gap back to the Englishman until a retirement for Nicholas Latifi in the tunnel brought out the safety car. 

For those who started on super softs, led by Luca Ghiotto in P9, it was a godsend, but for the others it posed a question, to be answered quickly: change early onto super softs and try to get to the end of the race, or hold onto your strategy and hope that you can build enough of a lead to pit under green later? Albon was the most prominent driver to gamble on the change, emerging in P7 ahead of Ghiotto, promoting Rowland to P2 behind Leclerc in the process. 

The race went live on lap 12, and once again Leclerc left the others behind as Rowland eked out a gap back to Matsushita, Markelov, Jordan King and Norman Nato, with Ghiotto trying in vain to find a way past Albon behind them before Louis Deletraz and Robert Visiou came together at Mirabeau, prompting another safety car period which undid those who gambled earlier. 

Leclerc was called in just after the collision but before the SC was called, with his pursuers coming in behind the safety car: Markelov jumped Matsushita in the pits but the trio emerging in front of the local driver, demoting him to 4th. Worse was to come for the Monegasque though, as he returned to the pits a lap later with a mechanical gremlin which brought his race to an early end, along with a similar issue for near neighbour Nato. 

With the track now clear in front of him Rowland tore away at the restart, building a solid lead which would hold all the way to the flag, with Markelov closing over the final laps but unable to do anything about the Briton in front of him. Matsushita held on for the final podium position ahead of teammate Albon, whose tyre gamble hadn’t paid off but who was able keep Ghiotto at bay for P4, while Gustav Malja took advantage of starting on super softs to push up from 11th on the grid to P6 on the line, just denying a charging Nyck De Vries (who jumped from P14 to tomorrow’s front row) and Rapax teammate Johnny Cecotto, with King and Sergio Canamasas closing out the points positions.

Feature Race Provisional Classification  

 Pos

Driver

Team

1.

Oliver Rowland

DAMS

2.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

3.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

4.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix

5.

Luca Ghiotto

RUSSIAN TIME

6.

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering

7.

Nyck De Vries

Rapax

8.

Johnny Cecotto

Rapax

9.

Jordan King

MP Motorsport

10.

Sergio Canamasas

Trident

11.

Antonio Fuoco

PREMA Racing

12.

Ralph Boschung

Campos Racing

13.

Sean Gelael

Pertamina Arden

14.

Nabil Jeffri

Trident

15.

Louis Delétraz

Racing Engineering

 

Not classified

 

 

Sergio Sette Camara

MP Motorsport

 

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

 

Norman Nato

Pertamina Arden

 

Robert Visoiu

Campos Racing

 

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

 

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Charles Leclerc belied his lack of experience racing around his home circuit in Monaco by claiming the top spot in this afternoon’s free practice session, biding his time as he came to terms with the fabled circuit before grabbing P1 late in the session by a tenth from Sergio Canamasas and Oliver Rowland. 

The Monegasque driver has lived just off the circuit for his entire life but has never sat in a racing car on it, until today: he spent the session slowing easing up to speed before putting in a lap of 1:19.722 ten minutes before the close, setting a target that his rivals were unable to overturn. 

The session got underway with overcast but warm conditions, with no one wasting any time to get on circuit: Jordan King was the first driver on track, with all of his rivals following him out within the first minute. Rowland was the first to set a competitive time, at the ten minute mark, with Canamasas, Alexander Albon, Gustav Malja and Norman Nato alternating on top of the timesheets before Leclerc annexed it for himself. 

With so little time before qualifying the entire field was anxious not to put a wheel wrong at the famously tight and twisty circuit: apart from a small collision between Nabil Jeffri and Sergio Sette Camara, and a moment where Artem Markelov lost a piece of his car, there was little to concern the race marshals.

A late VSC test delayed the field briefly before the track went green again, with Rowland moving back up into the top 3 in the last minute of the session, ahead of Nato, Albon, Luca Ghiotto, Nyck De Vries, Markelov, Nicholas Latifi and Johnny Cecotto, most of whom lost quicker laps to traffic. 

This afternoon’s session will be split into 2 parts to avoid that traffic, with the odd numbered cars running first and the even numbered cars in the second session: pole will go to the fastest driver overall, with the fastest in the other session given P2 and the rest of the field lining up directly behind them in session order. With traffic out of the way, the laptimes will tumble as the fight for pole intensifies.  

Free Practice Classification  

 Pso

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

1:19.722

25

2.

Sergio Canamasas

Trident

1:19.861

23

3.

Oliver Rowland

DAMS

1:19.868

24

4.

Norman Nato

Pertamina Arden

1:20.058

25

5.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix 

1:20.366

26

6.

Luca Ghiotto

RUSSIAN TIME

1:20.515

24

7.

Nyck De Vries

Rapax

1:20.530

26

8.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:20.540

23

9.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:20.866

26

10.

Johnny Cecotto

Rapax

1:20.944

22

11.

Jordan King

MP Motorsport

1:21.013

25

12.

Sean Gelael

Pertamina Arden

1:21.099

23

13.

Robert Visoiu

Campos Racing

1:21.103

26

14.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:21.123

26

15.

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering

1:21.305

26

16.

Antonio Fuoco

PREMA Racing

1:21.781

23

17.

Louis Delétraz

Racing Engineering

1:21.987

24

18.

Sergio Sette Camara

MP Motorsport

1:22.064

26

19.

Ralph Boschung

Campos Racing

1:22.111

26

20.

Nabil Jeffri

Trident

1:22.130

24

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Charles Leclerc has delighted his local fans by grabbing provisional pole in a dramatic split qualifying session this afternoon at the Grand Prix de Monaco, leading the way in Group A ahead of Oliver Rowland before watching Group B from the pits as Alexander Albon headed the second group but missed the Monegasque’s time by just one hundredth of a second. 

The sun emerged between free practice and qualifying, and with it the track temperatures increased to 40˚ ahead of the start of Group A’s 16 minute session, with all of the odd-numbered cars heading straight out on track. Leclerc made the first competitive time at the 4 minute mark before being usurped by Sergio Canamasas and Nobuharu Matsushita, but with 2 minutes remaining the local driver reclaimed the top spot with a time of 1:19.309, ahead of Rowland and Matsushita. 

A big lock up at Ste Devote next time through put the brakes on any improvement on his last lap, but with Matsushita jumping the kerb out of the Swimming Pool complex and finding the wall the session was over for everyone just before the clock wound down to zero. 

The even-numbered drivers in Group B were out mere minutes later, and they had the advantage of a target: Sergio Sette Camara set the first competitive time before being pushed off P1 by Artem Markelov and then Albon, with the Thai driver improving on his own best lap with 3 minutes remaining for a time of 1:19.321. Markelov and Albon both pushed hard on their final lap, setting the fastest first and second sectors respectively, but traffic meant that they were unable to improve on their times, with Norman Nato finishing third behind them in the second group. 

With pole going to the fastest driver over both groups, Leclerc had done enough to hold off his GP3 rival for his third pole position in a row ahead of Albon, Rowland and Markelov, with the grid formed of the 2 groups lining up side by side, with Nyck De Vries to lose 3 places from his Barcelona sprint race penalty for tomorrow’s feature race.

Provisional Qualifying Classification  

 Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

1:19.309

10

2.

Oliver Rowland

DAMS

1:19.541

9

3.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:19.922

10

4.

Jordan King

MP Motorsport

1:20.058

10

5.

Luca Ghiotto

RUSSIAN TIME

1:20.089

9

6.

Sean Gelael

Pertamina Arden 

1:20.272

11

7.

Johnny Cecotto

Rapax

1:20.413

11

8.

Sergio Canamasas

Trident

1:20.415

11

9.

Louis Delétraz

Racing Engineering

1:21.592

12

10.

Ralph Boschung

Campos Racing

1:21.664

10

 

 Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Alexandre Albon

ART Grand Prix

1:19.321

11

2.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:19.647

10

3.

Norman Nato

Pertamina Arden

1:19.803

8

4.

Nyck De Vries

Rapax

1:19.814

9

5.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:20.042

9

6.

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering

1:20.282

11

7.

Antonio Fuoco

PREMA Racing

1:20.593

11

8.

Robert Visoiu

Campos Racing

1:20.867

10

9.

Nabil Jeffri

Trident

1:21.239

11

10.

Sergio Sette Camara

MP Motorsport

1:21.271

11

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Nobuharu Matsushita put himself in the driver’s seat to collect victory in this morning’s Sprint Race at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona with a solid, mature drive to P2 in the opening stages before a mistake by race leader Nicholas Latifi gave the McLaren development driver a clean run through for his first win since last year’s sprint race in Monaco, ahead of DAMS teammates Oliver Rowland and Latifi. 

The race opened under clear and warm conditions, and when the lights went out polesitter Artem Markelov bogged down, with P3 starter Latifi making an incredible start to easily lead front row starter Gustav Malja, Matsushita, Luca Ghiotto, Alexander Albon, Rowland, Jordan King and Charles Leclerc past the fuming Russian and into turn one. A few corners later Nyck De Vries and Antonio Fuoco came together and spun in unison, prompting the safety car to make an appearance. 

Latifi easily controlled the lap 2 restart before setting off down the road, putting himself safely out of DRS range in the process, while Leclerc started his move up the timesheets with a clean run through King at turn one, with Markelov following in his wake. The Monegasque driver was soon recommencing battle with former GP3 rival Albon, forcing both men forward: Ghiotto was quickly dispatched by the pair, while ahead of them Matsushita and Rowland claimed Malja’s scalp on lap 14 as they put themselves on the podium. 

With 6 laps to go Leclerc’s constant pressure finally paid off: Albon’s tyres were shot and he was simply unable to defend anymore when the Ferrari Academy man blasted past at turn one and into the distance, passing Malja a lap later. Out in front Latifi had built a 3.5 second lead, but a moment’s distraction when his mirror detached saw the Canadian run wide, with Matsushita needing no further invitation to blast past and teammate Rowland carefully ensuring the pair didn’t come together as he followed the Japanese driver. 

Matsushita flew away, building a 3.3 second lead over Rowland by the time the chequered flag dropped for him, with a gutted Latifi at least bringing home another podium for the team behind the Briton. Leclerc brought home more points for his title fight in P4 ahead of King, who had saved his tyres and sliced through his rivals on the closing laps for 5th ahead of Malja, who just denied Ghiotto on the line, with Albon limping home with the final point for P8. 

Leclerc leads the way in the Drivers’ Championship after Round 2 on 73 points, ahead of Rowland on 47, Ghiotto on 38, Markelov on 34, Matsushita on 31 and Latifi on 28 points, while PREMA Racing and DAMS share the honours at the top of the Teams’ Championship on 75 points ahead of RUSSIAN TIME on 72, ART Grand Prix on 52 and MP Motorsport on 26 points as the grid turns its attention to the next round of the championship, in Monaco on 25-27 May. 

Sprint Race Provisional Classification 

 Pos

Driver

Team

Gap

1

Nobuharu Matsushita 

ART Grand Prix 

 

2

Oliver Rowland 

DAMS 

3.309

3

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS 

4.621

4

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

9.177

5

Jordan King 

MP Motorsport

15.333

6

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering 

17.987

7

Luca Ghiotto

RUSSIAN TIME

18.092

8

Alexander Albon 

ART Grand Prix 

21.135

9

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

21.552

10

Johnny Cecotto 

Rapax 

30.744

11

Sergio Canamasas 

Trident

31.549

12

Roberto Merhi 

Campos Racing

34.434

13

Norman Nato 

Pertamina Arden

35.271

14

Louis Delétraz 

Racing Engineering 

38.090

15

Sergio Sette Camara

MP Motorsport

39.446

16

Sean Gelael

Pertamina Arden

46.950

17

Ralph Boschung

Campos Racing

50.226

18

Nabil Jeffri

Trident

59.912

 

         

 

 

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