After a free practice session marked by heavy rain, our drivers went into qualifying without any reference points for a dry track. Despite this, Victor set the fastest time in his qualifying group while Zak, who was making his first appearance in Monaco in F2, took a promising 13th position.
During the sprint race, Victor encountered a problem at the start of the race and lost several positions. A competitor made contact and broke his front wing at turn one, causing the car to become undrivable, leaving Victor to retire against the barriers.
On his side, Zak made a solid start and gained three positions that allowed him to break into the top 10 by the end of the opening lap. Despite several incidents and race neutralizations, Zak maintained his position until the chequered flag.
Once again in the feature race, Victor was the victim of a poor start and was down in 16th by the end of the first lap, two places behind Zak.
Both drivers opted for a very long first stint and were 1-2 before their pit stops, with a twenty-second lead over the first of the drivers who had already pitted.
Victor changed tires with three laps to go. He returned to the track in 11th place and gained two positions to score two points.
Zak pitted a lap after Victor and used his gap and a Virtual Safety Car to stay ahead of the field and win his very first Formula 2 race.
Zak O’Sullivan:
“After a difficult qualifying session, starting from P15, I didn’t think winning the feature race in Monaco was possible. It was a crazy race, but my pace was really good, and I managed to open up a gap. Despite the tricky conditions, the team chose the perfect strategy, which paid off when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed. It’s been a challenging start to the year; we’ve had some bad luck and made a few mistakes. However, this fantastic victory is a great boost for the rest of the season.”
Sébastien Philippe:
“The start of the season was difficult with some approximations from the team, but also our share of bad luck. The wheels turned in Monaco, a track where you need to create your own luck. That’s what we did in the Feature race by going as far as possible in the first stint because there were several different race paces through the field, so this allowed Zak and Victor to build a big gap. The Virtual Safety Car was the cherry on top for Zak, who concluded a magnificent race for a rookie driver in Monaco. Regarding Victor, we can only be frustrated by his starting procedure problems that ruined both of his races this weekend”
Copyright : Dutch Photo Agency
