F2 – Monaco Grand Prix – Race: Crawford wins after a chaotic race

Jak Crawford (DAMS) won the main Formula 2 race in Monaco, turning a difficult position into victory thanks to a perfectly timed pit stop strategy and two disruptions that shook up the hierarchy. This victory allows Luke Browning (Hitech GP) to take the lead in the championship.

Carnage at the first corner

The start turned into a disaster from the first corner. Alex Dunne, despite being on pole position, poorly executed his take-off, allowing Victor Martins to come alongside him at the entry of Sainte-Dévote. The Irishman from Rodin Motorsport tried to defend his position, but contact with Martins’ ART car was inevitable.

The collision resulted in a pile-up involving a total of seven drivers. Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport), Gabriele Mini (Prema), Ritomo Miyata (ART GP), Pepe Marti (Campos Racing), and Max Esterson (Trident) were forced to retire immediately. The red flag was waved, leading to a 42-minute interruption.

Montoya inherits the front row.

The restart grid held a surprise. Sebastian Montoya (Prema), initially fifth on the grid, started from the pit lane due to technical issues. This situation allowed him to find himself on the front row alongside Leonardo Fornaroli (Invicta Racing) for the restart.

Lining up behind them were Arvid Lindblad (Campos), Crawford, Luke Browning, Kush Maini (DAMS), Joshua Duerksen (AIX Racing), and Oliver Goethe (MP). The race resumed under a safety car with a modified format, changing from the initially planned 42 laps to a time-limited duration.

New complications

Fornaroli took the lead at the green flag, but the calm did not last. On the seventh lap, Joshua Duerksen crashed at Rascasse after contact with Kush Maini, triggering a virtual safety car period.

The Italian from Invicta Racing maintained a half-second lead over his pursuers while Crawford, in fourth position, was setting the best lap times. Oliver Goethe was the first to make his mandatory pit stop, switching from super-soft to soft tires in an attempt to achieve the fastest lap.

Dino Beganovic imitated him shortly after, even managing to temporarily take the fastest lap from the German on the twelfth lap. But his race ended in the barriers at turn four, causing another virtual safety car period and then the intervention of the safety car.

Crawford seizes his chance

The intervention of the safety car reshuffled the deck. Crawford, Browning, and Maini took advantage of this window to make their mandatory stops. The timing proved perfect for the American driver, who was able to dive into the pit lane just before the three leaders were caught by the safety car.

When Fornaroli, Montoya, and Lindblad finally made their pit stops a lap later, Crawford had taken control of the race. Lindblad indeed got ahead of Montoya during his pit stop, but a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane pushed him back behind the Colombian.

Final red flag

A second red flag was waved on the eighteenth lap due to the damage caused by Beganovic’s accident. The results were frozen at the sixteenth lap, confirming Crawford’s victory with a 6.6-second lead over Fornaroli.

This interruption notably penalized Amaury Cordeel (Rodin), who was relegated from eighth to twelfth place as he was classified a lap behind when the race was stopped.

New leader in the championship

This victory, Crawford’s second of the season, allows him to climb to fifth place in the championship with 56 points. Even more significant, Dunne’s retirement benefits Luke Browning, who takes the lead in the overall standings with 70 points, now ahead of the Irishman (67 points) and Fornaroli (64 points).

In the constructors’ standings, Hitech TGR retains the first place with 99 points, ahead of Campos Racing (92 points) and Invicta Racing (76 points). DAMS Lucas Oil and MP Motorsport are tied in fourth position with 71 points each.

Next appointment next week in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix, the sixth round of the 2025 season.