Italy – Review of the weekend: Fuoco and Ghiotto prophets in their country

A crazy race on Saturday and an Italian double on the track.

Formula 2 followed the outcome of a surprising Formula 1 qualifying session, held in difficult weather conditions. A few minutes after Lewis Hamilton’s pole position, the twenty drivers from the grid took to a soaked, treacherous track, obliged to use wet-weather tires, as Formula 2 cars are not equipped with intermediate tires.

From then on, the result of the Friday Qualifying would carry little weight. Nobuharu Matsushita started from pole position for the first time in his career. After two red flags, the Japanese driver from ART Grand Prix set a time of 1:30:982, ahead of Nyck de Vries (Racing Engineering) and Louis Deletraz (Rapax). A great comeback for the Honda protege, who suffered a big crash in Eau Rouge during the last race in Belgium.

The championship leader Charles Leclerc started in seventh position, ahead of his Prema Racing teammate Antonio Fuoco.

The cards were well and truly reshuffled. It took six laps and the withdrawal of the Safety Car for a race to finally unfold: six laps and a precisely aborted start. The first procedure was actually disrupted by Santino Ferrucci (Trident) stalling on the grid.

The second attempt was the right one! For the first time in the history of the series, the F2 drivers took a standing start in the rain.

At take-off, Matsushita took a bad impulse and lost control. De Vries moved into the lead and protected his position towards the first turn by closing the door on the Japanese driver. At the same time, Markelov emerged during the braking phase on the inside. Being too greedy, the Russian Time driver lit up his tires and braked desperately on the curb, while taking Nyck de Vries’ car with him. As a result, the two leaders and even Matsushita went beyond the trajectory and cut the chicane! The Dutch driver still held the advantage on the exit.

The intensity of the start continued into the second chicane, where three cars arrived side by side, the disadvantaged driver being the one in the middle, namely Alexander Albon (ART Grand Prix), who spun out.

Avoiding the upheaval, Charles Leclerc made the difference by moving up to third place. Then to second place from the first passage of the Parabolique! The Monegasque made Matsushita yield in a magnificent move on the outside and then on the inside of the trajectory.

Behind the leading trio, we found the two Rapax cars, with Deletraz ahead of Roberto Mehri and Oliver Rowland (DAMS), second in the overall drivers’ championship. Luca Ghiotto was behind this small group in seventh place, after gaining four positions since the start.

The impression of ease was evident in the driver of the Russian Time team, who had clearly chosen good settings on the wet track. The Italian was joining the trio in front of him. Quickly getting rid of Déletraz, Ghiotto offered a show on the eighth lap, overtaking the two cars in front of him in two sectors. His best traction notably made the difference on Matsushita, at the re-acceleration, after Lesmo 2.

At the front, Leclerc was now putting pressure on de Vries, without being able to overtake. The race turned on the seventeenth lap, with Matsushita’s pit stop, who put on a new set of rain tires. Leclerc made his stop one lap later. The Ferrari Academy driver tried the undercut. But it failed as de Vries maintained the advantage when he passed through the pit lane on the 18th lap, followed by Rowland and Ghiotto.

The race then took a major turn, with the British driver’s misfortune. His rear left wheel had been improperly secured by the mechanics. His wild race ended in the barriers, leaving the driver stranded on the 19th lap.

The Safety Car was going up the track and regrouping the pack. The best possible scenario for a fireworks finish. After two laps of neutralization, de Vries restarted the pack in his own way by compressing his opponents as much as possible.

But the leader had not gained enough momentum! As Leclerc pulled alongside him in the main straight! However, the future Sauber test driver was too optimistic and took the escape route of the first corner. Meanwhile, De Vries struggled to accelerate again at the corner exit, causing a scuffle in the chicane.

It benefited Ghiotto who was passing inside the long Curva Grande curve! And a double whammy: in slow motion to show the position taken unintentionally, Leclerc was overtaken. The native of the Veneto region was therefore moving into the lead of the race for the first time of the day!

In his mind, Ghiotto was holding wheel to wheel in the straight line against the Racing Engineering driver. But like Leclerc one lap earlier, the leader missed his braking point. The difference this time was that the Russian Time driver went through the grass instead of the asphalt run-off area. This mistake would be fatal for him…

He still avoided the match between Vries and Leclerc. A confrontation that ended in a double KO. Drifting on the throttle, the first mentioned dragged the second into the grass and the wall a few meters away. Leclerc managed to make a dramatic comeback on the track but his time was over.

His teammate took over: back in third, Fuoco benefited from the Dutchman’s puncture in his brush with Leclerc. Like in a parade, two Italian drivers appeared in the lead in the final straight.

Luca Ghiotto thought he had clinched his first win of the season. Standing on the top step, he was nevertheless stripped of his trophy a few hours later. The reason was his shortcut through the first chicane. Ghiotto had not given back the position to de Vries and was therefore penalized with a five-second penalty.

On the green baize, the other Italian on the grid was picking up the stakes, in the person of Antonio Fuoco! Author of two podiums in 2017, the other member of the Ferrari Academy secured his first victory in Formula 2. Nobuharu Matsushita and Nicholas Latifi completed the podium of this crazy race. Luca Ghiotto was ultimately counted in fourth place, ahead of Sean Gelael. Charles Leclerc did not finish better than 17th in front of de Vries, penalized by twenty seconds on his ranking for his dangerous maneuver on the last lap.

Ghiotto confirms and really asserts himself on Sunday!

But Ghiotto was about to take his revenge. And in what way! Under the sun of Monza, the race started under the command of poleman Gustav Malja, who finished eighth in the Saturday race. But the pole position was definitely not a gift. The Swede from Racing Engineering gave way to the thunderous Sean Gelael (Pertamina Arden), who came out of the first corner ahead of Delétraz, Sette Camara (MP Motorsport) and Malja. Ghiotto held on to his sixth place on the grid. After overtaking the disappointing Malja in the Parabolica, Ghiotto treated us to another display of overtaking. His first victim was Gelael (who had handed the lead to Déletraz), in a magnificent move in Lesmo 1. Following Sette Camara, the Italian threw himself into the free space on the inside to outsmart the Indonesian, who lost two places at once.

Ghiotto wasted no time and put pressure on Sette Camara, who cracked on the following lap, missing his braking point at the Variante della Roggia, the second chicane. The eleventh lap was decisive, with Ghiotto’s final overtake on the leader Louis Déletraz. Despite a brave defense from the Swiss driver throughout the first sector, the new Williams test driver (during the final private tests in Budapest) benefited from better traction after the first chicane. He positioned himself on the inside before Lesmo 1 and found the opening.

From then on, he only had to complete the remaining 15 laps out of the 21 laps offered by this sprint race. Behind him, Sette Câmara tried to deceive, aiming to confirm his victory in the sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps. He overtook Deletraz using DRS on the main straight, but failed to catch up with the leader, who this time did not let anyone else take the victory!

A few hours after the end of Saturday’s race, **Luca Ghiotto showed all his emotion following this triumph**, the second of his career in Formula 2 (after a victory in a sprint race at Sepang in 2016)

« As I said on the radio after the finish line, this is the victory I feel the most in my career! There is no better feeling in the world than winning the day after a defeat on a green carpet! »

Selfie time for Russian time! Luca p1 pic.twitter.com/vst8XOEeni

— Russian Time Team (@russiantimeteam) September 3, 2017

For the last step of the podium, the other strong man of the weekend emerged at the end. Antonio Fuoco passed Déletraz at the first corner of the penultimate lap!

Further back, in the middle of the pack, Charles Leclerc had epic battles since his 17th place on the starting grid. The Prema Racing driver narrowly missed a flat tire after hitting debris from Matsushita’s car front wing. The Monegasque nevertheless took all the risks to score points, notably by diving before Ascari, in a daring overtaking maneuver on Alexander Albon. All in vain with a ninth place finish. Small consolation: fortunately for him, Oliver Rowland complained of a car lacking performance. His eleventh place finish behind Norman Nato clearly illustrates his difficult race.

From a global perspective, the race remained slightly calmer than the exciting Saturday afternoon round.

However, many approximate braking were noted at the first corner, in the first chicane. The aggressiveness of the drivers was clearly visible this weekend at the temple of speed…

The update on the championship

Difficult return for Charles Leclerc. After picking up ten small points in Spa-Francorchamps, the Monegasque leaves Italy with a zero score, marking his worst weekend of the season. Similar outcome for Oliver Rowland, who still holds the second position in the overall standings. Luca Ghiotto, on the other hand, is making a good comeback, closing the gap to nine points behind the British driver and two points behind Artem Markelov. The Russian only scored two small points in Monza, confirming the odd impression left by the title contenders…

Pilots who could still be crowned (96 points still available for distribution, maximum):

Among builders, everything is tightening at the top! The French team DAMS loses the lead and sees Russian Time and Prema Racing pass ahead.

Constructors who could still be crowned (156 points still distributable, maximum):

For now, Formula 2 is taking a break from the F1 Circus. The next meeting will take place outside a Grand Prix weekend, at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, from Friday, October 6 to Sunday, October 8. On the other hand, the grand finale will take place at the end of November in Abu Dhabi, at the same time as the outcome of the premier category…

Good morning Tweeps! Enjoy the video highlights from Round 9 at @Autodromo_Monza https://t.co/XF0WtC0848#F2 pic.twitter.com/SnubxxVhiJ

— FIA Formula 2 (@FIA_F2) September 6, 2017