Formula 2 Report Cards: Monaco

Round 5 of the 2022 F2 season took place in Monaco. The F2 circus dodged the inclement weather that hampered the F1 race. The round saw the return of the two-group qualifying that sets sides of the grid depending on who was faster, whilst Campos’ Ralph Boschung withdrew for a second successive round due to the neck injury that has hampered the Swiss driver over the last few rounds. Before sitting out the races, he qualified 11^th, meaning everyone behind was pushed up a place for both races.

Unfortunately, the two races this weekend could have done with something, literally anything, to spice it up as they were particularly processional. However, there’s still some performances of note to praise and criticise in this instalment of the Formula 2 Report Cards:

Top of the Class:

Dennis Hauger – Qualifying: 9^th | Sprint: 1^st | Feature: 7^th

Considering this was the Norwegian’s first taste of Monaco in an F2 car, it was a pretty strong weekend for Dennis, as he took his maiden win in the series.

The victory came in somewhat fortunate circumstances as Sprint Race pole sitter Jake Hughes (Van Amersfoort) stalled on the formation lap, leaving Hauger a clean run from P2. Nonetheless, Dennis still had to negotiate the 30 laps of the race and that he did, taking victory by nearly 7 seconds.

In Sunday’s Feature Race, a demonic launch on the supersoft tyres rocketed Hauger up to P5 by Sainte Devote, he may have slipped back to 7^th after the soft tyre runners were given a free pitstop at the midway stage of the race, but P7 was another respectable result as the Prema Racing driver more than doubled his points total to 30.

Théo Pourchaire – Qualifying: 2^nd | Sprint: 6^th | Feature: 2^nd

The young Frenchman sent shockwaves through the series last year when, at just 17, he won the Monaco Feature Race. He couldn’t quite repeat the same feat this season, but he certainly gave it his best shot.

Théo was just under two-tenths slower than Championship leader Felipe Drugovich, but his time was the best of Group B, which meant he would start Sunday’s Feature Race from the front row.

First up was Saturday’s Sprint Race, and whilst Drugovich had a strategy mare leading him onto wet tyres on a near bone dry track, Pourchaire ate into the Championship lead as he moved up from 9^th on the grid to claim P6.

In the Feature Race, Pourchaire was clearly the faster of the two drivers on the second stint as he harried the Brazilian in front, but just couldn’t find a way by.

The ART driver had to settle for P2 in the end, unfortunately losing a little ground to Felipe in front but he still finds himself in striking distance, which is a good place to be as we still have over half of the season left.  

Hitech GP

Jüri Vips – Qualifying: 4^th | Sprint: 5^th | Feature: 3^rd

Marcus Armstrong – Qualifying: 7^th | Sprint 3^rd | Feature: 6^th

For the first time this season, both of the Hitech drivers found the consistency to return a strong haul of points from Monaco, claiming podiums and gaining positions in the two races.

Arguably, Vips just shaded the weekend by qualifying slightly higher which maximised his points haul on Sunday, capping it off with a podium by good teamwork to jump Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan in the pits.

On the other side of the garage, Marcus returned to the rostrum in the Sprint with a solid run to P3. The results mean that the duo sit P4 and P5 in the Driver’s Championship, with Marcus leading Jüri by a single point. There is still a considerable gap to the Championship leader Drugovich, but more weekends like this will close the gap before long.

The Struggle Bus:

Ayumu Iwasa – Qualifying: 12^th (demoted from 3^rd due to penalty) | Sprint: 19^th (despite post-race penalty) | Feature: 17^th (despite post-race penalty)

One driver who had an absolute stinker in the Principality was DAMS rookie Ayumu Iwasa. The Red Bull junior copped the attention of the Stewards on three occasions, all of which resulted in sanctions.

Firstly, he lost his P3 start from qualifying after being adjudged to set his lap by failing to slow for double-waived yellows after Drugovich clobbered the wall at the final corner in the closing seconds of Group A’s session.

Iwasa was dropped to P13 as his initial effort was only the 7^th best time of the particular session, then he was given a 10-place penalty, so therefore started 20^th for Saturday’s Sprint Race. That race also saw him penalised again as he forced MP’s Clément Novalak into the wall on the run towards Anthony Noghes on lap 10, copping a 10-second time penalty that had no overall effect on his result as Ayumu came home last of the classified finishers.

Iwasa probably hoped for a clean Sunday, and it was going well as he found himself in the points despite a processional race, only to get himself and Trident’s Calan Williams lodged at the Grand Hotel Hairpin on the penultimate lap. The Japanese driver received a five-second penalty which once again had no impact on his finishing position as he came home last. Overall, one very forgettable round for Ayumu.

Liam Lawson – Qualifying: 5^th (demoted from 1^st due to penalty) | Sprint: 8^th | Feature: DNF

After a few mediocre rounds, Liam could really have done with a strong Monaco round to kickstart a title charge. Unfortunately, the Kiwi did not achieve this.

Having initially taken pole in qualifying, Lawson was demoted back to P3 in his group (P5 on the grid) after failing to slow sufficiently for the waved yellows for Drugovich’ stricken MP car. Liam’s mini sector was only 0.012 seconds slower on his way to taking pole. The Kiwi was then slapped with a five-place penalty for the Sprint Race, dropping him from 6^th to 11^th for Saturday’s race.

With Championship leader Drugovich having a mare on Saturday, this would have been a good opportunity to claw back points, unfortunately the penalty meant Lawson could only recover to P8 and claim a singular point.

That would be the highlight of his weekend as Liam stalled on the grid so started from the pitlane, recovered to 12^th before putting Novalak in the wall at the hairpin on lap 24 and then suffered a power failure on lap 35. A costly DNF means Lawson is now 71 points behind Drugovich, hopes of claiming the title are already faint but there are still 8 rounds to go and no doubt some more twists that could benefit Liam (he’ll be hoping so anyway).

The Stewards & Marshals

Monaco marshals and renowned for being some of the best in the industry, probably because the tight and compact circuit is prone to the odd crash or two. It’s rare to criticise these guys but along with Stewards, the decision to roll a stricken car across a live pitlane was alarming, to say the least.

The incident in question involved, surprise surprise, Amaury Cordeel after the Belgian clobbered the wall at Anthony Noghes on lap 19 of Sunday’s Feature Race. As the VAR driver stopped close to the pit lane exit it did seem to be the logical idea to move the car through the gap.

Conveniently for most of the leading pack, the incident gave them a free pitstop, however for Drugovich and Pourchaire in particular, the car was blocking their path as they came to exit the pits to the point both had to stop in the fast lane. The pitlane wasn’t closed to facilitate this removal and neither was the red light shown at the pit lane exit which really is an unforgivable safety lapse.

Thankfully the drivers reacted in time as they came to a stop, but also luckily for the Stewards the leading pack were not passed by those who didn’t pit because that would have caused an almighty uproar amongst a number of drivers and teams.

After a predictably tame double-header, F2 heads to the Baku City Circuit on the 11^th/12^th of June for round 6. This is my personal highlight of the season because equal cars on a track like Baku creates drama and chaos, it can and probably will turn the Championship on its head for many drivers.