F2 Monaco – Maini Cruises to Victory in Dull Monaco Sprint Race

Indian driver Kush Maini dominates F2 Monaco Sprint Race, leading lights-to-flag for DAMS in a processional but controlled victory.

As is customary in Monaco, drivers were split into two groups for the qualifying session.

Victor Martins was by far the fastest in his group, but Dunne in the second group beat him by just three thousandths of a second before triggering a red flag after a collision with Villagomez.

Tenth in qualifying, Maini started from pole today for the 30-lap sprint race. He got a clean start and held the lead, while behind him Browning lost three positions, allowing Mini to move up into second.

At Turn 5, Crawford and Lindblad made contact, and Browning overtook the American driver, while Lindblad received a 10-second penalty for the incident.

Maini Holds Under Pressure

Up front, Mini applied pressure on Maini, but the DAMS driver remained flawless. The safety car was deployed when Dürksen ended up in the barriers coming out of Turn 7 after a clash with Goethe at the hairpin.

The German was also handed a ten-second penalty.

At the restart, Maini managed his tyres perfectly and was able to pull out a small gap on Mini. Goethe dived inside Martins at Turn 17, damaging the Frenchman’s ART car and forcing him to pit for a front wing change.

Lindblad, with a 10-second penalty to be added to his race time, was now ten seconds behind Mini, and his team instructed him to push to build a gap to those behind. He responded by gaining six seconds on Mini in under ten laps.

Up front, Maini kept his cool and secured the sprint race win, ahead of Mini and Browning.

Crawford finished fourth, closely followed by Verschoor and Montoya. Fornaroli came in seventh, and Lindblad ultimately claimed the final point in eighth place.

Race results

Championship standings

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