It was bound to happen, but Luke Browning taking his first win in Formula 2 in Monza is a great revenge from last year desillusion. It didn’t prevent that race from being chaotic, but probably one of the best of the season so far.
Great start from Luke Browning whereas Kush Maini had a disastrous start, going back to sixth position. He tried to regain his position on lap 2 at the first chicane but locked his tyres and went wide into the gravel, restarting last. Heated battle between Arvid Lindblad and Josep Maria Martì for the sixth place, while Victor Martins and Leonardo Fornaroli tried everything to keep their P8. They touched each other, breaking the Invicta’s front wing.
Oliver Goethe took the lead of the race on lap 4 with a beautiful overtake. On lap 7, the leader pitted, as well as Jak Crawford to put on soft tyres. Alexander Dunne had a big crash at Ascari in the tech pro, with Arvid Lindblad missing his breaking point, crashing into the back of the Irish’s car. The British took a 10-seconds penalty for that. It then gave everyone the opportunity to pit. Oliver Goethe found himself in eighth.
Chaos at the first chicane
During the safety car restart, some incomprehension between Cordeel and Shields made the AIX Racing driver in the grass and not restarting. The race director decided to still do the restart, and it was pure chaos. Arvid Lindblad, still with no front wing, tried to overtake at the chicane but came crashing into Roman Staněk’s car. With the chaos, Gabriele Minì came to touch Victor Martins’s car. The race could finally restart on lap 13, and Luke Browning had a great restart but Joshua Durksen took the upper hand. The first chicane kept having chaos with Sami Meguetounif missing the breaking point and preferred to take the grass to not hit anyone. This brings out the third safety car.
Hard battle for the podium
At the restart, Joshua Durksen kept the lead and Leonardo Fornaroli was the one making a mistake at the first chicane. Luke Browning took the lead back on lap 19, while Martì battled with Villagomez for the last spot on the podium. Fornaroli was struggling to break late with a broken front wing. He struggled to attack Jak Crawford. He managed to do so into the next lap. Gabriele Minì managed to pass Jak Crawford for P6 with a broken front wing as well. The American was struggling as Dino Beganovic also overtook him. He kept climbing by taking the P6 away from the Italian Alpine Academy driver.
Oliver Goethe also missed the first chicane on lap 27 and almost took out Montoya. Martì tried to overtake Villagomez, forcing the Mexican driver out of the track. Even with giving the position back, the Spanish driver took the third position. He tried to overtake Durksen as well but locked his tyres. Luke Browning won the feature race, in front of Joshua Durksen and Josep Maria Martì. John Bennett also scored his first Formula 2 point.