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The Chinese driver led every lap as he took a commanding victory. His teammate, Felipe Drugovich, completed a UNI-Virtuosi one-two as Roy Nissany rounded off the podium with his maiden F2 podium finish.
Ralph Boschung finished a career-best fourth ahead of Juri Vips in fifth, Dan Ticktum in sixth, Theo Pourchaire in seventh and Oscar Piastri in eighth scoring a solitary point.
Liam Lawson finished in ninth ahead of the rampant Marcus Armstrong who claimed reverse grid pole with 10th. Jehan Daruvala suffered the overtake as he dropped to 11th with David Beckmann in 12th, Richard Verschoor in 13th, Ben Viscaal in 14th, Lirim Zendeli in 15th, Jack Aitken in 16th, Guilherme Samaia in 17th and Alessio Deledda the final finisher in 18th.
Starting Grid
After qualifying in P10 yesterday, Guanyu Zhou claimed reverse grid pole position. The UNI-Virtuosi driver will start ahead of his teammate Felipe Drugovich in second and Christian Lundgaard in third.
Roy Nissany starts fourth with Ralph Boschung behind him in fifth. Juri Vips follows in sixth ahead of Dan Ticktum in seventh, Oscar Piastri in eighth, Robert Shwartzman in ninth and the fastest man in yesterday’s qualifying session, Theo Pourchaire, starting from 10th.
Jehan Daruvala missed out on the top 10 as he starts from 11th ahead of Hitech’s Liam Lawson in 12th and Charouz’s David Beckmann in 13th. Marcus Armstrong sat in P14, Bent Viscaal in P15, Richard Verschoor in P16, Lirim Zendeli in P17, Marino Sato in P18, Gianluca Petecof in P19 and Guilherme Samaia in P20 with the two HWA Racelab’s of Jack Aitken and Alession Deledda at the back of the grid in P21 and P22.
As It Happened
Zhou got a good launch off the line as he went into turn one in the lead. Lundgaard got an even better start and was able to overtake Drugovich which put him up to second.
Shwartzman dropped all the way to the back of the grid as he collided with the wall which saw him lose his front wing. On lap four, the Russian retired from the race as his bad start to the 2021 season continued.
The UNI-Virtuosi of Zhou extended his lead at the front as the Chinese driver pulled a two-second gap on second-placed Lundgaard.
The Dane had smoke coming out of the back of his car which looked like an engine issue or oil leak of some sorts as he started to fall a long way behind the leader Zhou.
At the halfway point, Zhou led away from Lundgaard in second with Drugovich in third. Nissany was fourth ahead of Boschung in fifth, Vips in sixth, Ticktum in seventh and Pourchaire in the final points-paying position in eighth.
Lundgaard had to retire from the race not long after as the ART driver pulled up and became the second retiree of the race.
This meant that the DAMS of Nissany inherited the final podium position as the Israeli driver looked to secure the first podium of his F2 career.
With five laps to go, Zhou continued to lead the race ahead of his teammate Drugovich in second and DAMS’ Nissany in third. Boschung was fourth, Vips in fifth, Ticktum in sixth, Pourchaire in seventh and Piastri in the final points place in eighth.
The Safety car was released after Petecof hit the barrier on the exit of the Swimming Pool chicane and subsequently retired from the race.
At the restart, Zhou led the drivers over the line and extended his gap to Drugovich rather quickly. The rest of the drivers held their positions as two laps remained in the race.
Sato went off into the barrier at Saint Devote as the marshalls recovered his car quickly which allowed the race to continue but meant the Japanese driver’s day was over.
Armstrong was able to secure reverse grid pole ahead of the second Sprint Race tomorrow as he overtook Daruvala into La Rascasse on the final lap of the race.
Zhou retained the lead over the line as he extended his gap at the top of the Championship. Drugovich and Nissany rounded off the podium in second and third as the DAMS driver secured his maiden podium finish in F2.
Quotes from the drivers
After winning the race, Guanyu Zhou was asked by Prost International’s Adrian Kita how important it was to maintain the gaps and how crucial it was to nail the restart.
“In Monaco, it is most important to get the first laps right and then the Safety Car restart. Those are the key points to having no mistakes around the track and nailing it which we did today.
“Obviously in Barcelona [during testing], we put a lot of effort into our starts to figure out what went wrong in Bahrain.
“We definitely found the right solution to go around it and to start the weekend like this felt great.
“Christian [Lundgaard] was pushing quite a lot at the beginning, but the tyres were not in the optimal temprature so I was confident in holding him up and creating a gap in the middle part of the race.
“I was super happy with my Safety Car restart and it gave me enough of a gap to not attack too much especially with breaking into turn one with cold brakes”.
Third-placed Roy Nissany also gave his thoughts on what this podium finish meant to him.
“It takes a lot of confidence to get a result around here and then also to achieve a good qualifying.
“This really acts like a stamp of approval.
“It shows that we are able to do this, we have the pace to be at the top and it acts like a motivator to keep the ball rolling”.
What’s Next?
After a huge overtake on the final lap of the race, Marcus Armstrong lines up on pole position for the second Sprint Race tomorrow morning.
He will have Liam Lawson for company on the front row of the grid with Oscar Piastri right behind him in P3 on the grid.
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