Rollercoaster F2 race shocks “very lucky” podium sitters

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: DAMS Lucas Oil

The Formula 2 Feature Race in Monaco saw seven drivers out of contention after the first corner of the race. The two leaders, Alex Dunne and Victor Martins, collided going into Turn 1 and caused a pileup that only half of the field was able to avoid.

After a Red Flag to recover the cars and a rolling restart, Leonardo Fornaroli, Sebastián Montoya and Arvid Lindblad led the race. On Lap 14, Dino Beganovic’s crash allowed fourth-placed Jak Crawford to pit under Safety Car conditions and took the lead of the race. The Red Flag was called out yet again not long after and the race was not resumed, giving Crawford his second race win of the year ahead of Fornaroli and Montoya.

Crawford’s win came from seventh place on the grid, and Fornaroli gained one spot after starting third. Montoya was due to start fifth on the grid, but he stalled ahead of the Formation Lap for the second weekend in a row and had to start from pit lane. His recovery from a pit lane start to finishing on the podium was, in his words after the race, very lucky.

“It’s motorsport,” he said. “And sometimes you’re unlucky and sometimes you’re lucky. Today I thought I was unlucky and it turned out I was extremely lucky because it could be that it prevented me from being in that first corner accident.”

Avoiding the first lap incident

The main thing that put Crawford, Fornaroli and Montoya on the podium was their ability to avoid the chaos at Turn 1. For all three, it was a case of being in the right place at the right time.

“I guess it was just the placement,” Crawford said after the race. “I had actually gotten squeezed from Arvid [Lindblad] at the start which kind of boxed me in at the inside. I remember Gabriele Minì was on my outside, I had just gone around when I had to break and I saw the lockup ahead. I was kind of looking out and I saw everyone going in the wall on the outside and just had to keep sharp right.

“I just avoided it, I’m very very lucky, but also it was just the right place to be.”

For Fornaroli, foresight was key, as he anticipated there would be trouble going into the first corner and was ready to evade it.

“I think I was just at the right place at the right time,” he said. “I knew that both of them are very aggressive drivers, Victor had a very good start, went on the outside of Alex, and I knew Alex was not going to give up.

“So I said ‘ok chill, maybe they can crash and go into the wall.’ As soon as they touched I didn’t know what to do because I was thinking, ‘are they going to come back on track or go straight into the wall?’ And then as I saw they were going straight I just prepared for a mega accident and I luckily escaped the crash.”

Credit: Formula 2

And for Montoya, the key to his success was the issue that put him in the pit lane for the start.

He said: “I was in the pit lane, so I had a lot of time to react. The light went green, I saw the yellow flashing light, I kept going down, and then the first car I saw was a VAR and then I don’t remember the order. There was a guy blocking pit exit and I just put on the clutch and went by.

“I saw a little hole so I just squeezed through there. I had Richard in front of me who had a front wing under the car, he started to slow down and he stopped so I stopped just to make sure. Then I kept going and I didn’t have to react so much. I guess all three of us were in the right place at the right time.”

Crawford’s lucky win

The nature of racing is that, especially in F2, anything can and will happen. Some days a driver may fall foul of a crazy incident, and other days they may benefit from it.

The chaos in the F2 Feature Race allowed Crawford to make up ground that he would otherwise have had no way to make up, given the nature of the Monaco circuit and how difficult it is to overtake.

But the American driver managed, with more than one incident working in his favour, to gain six places to secure his win (and fifth place in the championship standings).

When asked if it had sunk in yet, Crawford answered: “No, I mean, this has been the craziest race of my life. I've been, honestly, so lucky today to avoid the crash at Turn 1 and obviously coming in at the right time for the Safety Car and to get it right. 

“I mean, when I woke up this morning, it was not what I had imagined the race being. I can't thank the team enough just for giving me a good pit stop and we were quite competitive, just to be close up there fighting for the podium anyways. Wow what a day honestly. so I was one a day.”

It was a good weekend for the DAMS Lucas Oil team, after Kush Maini took the Sprint Race win on Saturday before his teammate Crawford’s win on Sunday. After qualifying seventh and tenth, it was a better weekend than the team could ever have expected.

Yeah, after qualifying we were a bit down, because we didn't maximize our full potential” Crawford said about his team. “With Kush starting on Pole yesterday, and me getting the win today. It's huge for the team as well, especially since we had quite a rough start to the year, to get this result, even though we got super lucky. It's just huge for the team.”