F2 Talk: De Vries’ Championship Regains its Sparkle at Monaco

At the end of another glitzy weekend on the French Riviera, it was Dutch driver Nyck de Vries who comes away with second in the FIA Formula 2 Championship lead after a torrid weekend for his major rivals.

The ART Grand Prix driver started the weekend with a duct break, becoming the first FIA F2 driver to win from pole around Monaco, doing what Charles Leclerc and George Russell failed to do. Notably for De Vries, both of these drivers went on to win the title in their respective seasons and he’s now only 1 point behind Nicholas Latifi who had a torrid weekend.

Monaco’s tight streets meant that even the close racing of the Formula 2 cars could not aid overtaking to the levels that we expect to see. As a result, race two proved to be a dramatic U-Turn in protagonists with Anthoine Hubert claiming his first victory at this level, at a venue he’ll never forget.

Coming into this weekend Latifi had a 26 point advantage over Luca Ghiotto, with 30 and 31 to De Vries and Jack Aitken respectively. Come the end of proceedings, De Vries was the only one of the four protagonists to score.

Qualifying had been positive for the Dutchman. As per Monaco tradition, the field was split into two groups as to not make the track too crowded (search up 2011 GP2 Quali highlights) with De Vries in the second group. It proved to be an invaluable selection with the track continuing to heat up, he beat rivals Ghiotto and Latifi, bettering Group 1 pace setter Callum Ilott to take pole.

De Vries’ race had little to speak about it. A flawless drive from lights to flag was made sweeter by misfortune for all three of his rivals. His only threat came after the red flag, when he needed to hold off the advancing Luca Ghiotto, only for the Italian to get disqualified after the race for a technical infringement. Even Saturday’s race two proved unclimactic. Holding eighth place off the line, De Vries remained out of trouble, taking seventh after he made it past Nobuharu Matsushita.

Instead, the story of race one happened around him. Perhaps most notably, to Mick Schumacher. Ther German had lost places off the line, an unideal situation for a driver that had a clear run into Sante-Devote. He regained ground past Hubert, but starting on the softer rubber meant he had to pit early.

As he closed the gap infront, he soon came across Tatiana Calderon who’d yet to make her stop. Even was a car has greater speed, it’s still impossible to pass around Monte Carlo, a fact Schumacher found out the hard way; spinning the BWT Arden driver at La Rascasse and bringing out the red flag as the track was blocked.

Schumacher would eventually be given a drive through, though there had been concern about the already pitted cars recieving an advantage on the restart, a motion that was ruined when a stewart error meant this half of the field had been lapped. Because of Schumacher’s accident at the final corner, the flag was brought out after the leaders had already crossed the line. This meant the leaders simply completed an extra lap, joining the back of the queue before being funneled back to the front during the pitlane maintannce. How none of the officials spotted this is baffling.

The Feature Race soon became one of survival. The pitstops took Deletraz and Hubert out of major contention, a crash in the penultimate laps cost Juan Manuel Correa another strong street circuit finish and Jack Aitken spend his race dicing with Mahaveer Raghunathan, before the Indian punted him into the barrier. It also ensured that despite Artem Markelov’s 10 second penalty he could coast to sixth due to having a lap to those behind.

Some positive results had come from the race. Matsushita had started ninth, but due to pitstops, the red flag and incidents, was fourth as the race restarted. Leaping Sergio Sette Camara during the leaders pitstops gave the Carlin driver third on the road, later becoming second after Ghiotto’s DSQ. While Hubert, despite missing out on a potential podium thanks to his stop, did scythe his way to reverse grid pole after restarting twelfth.

Hubert had been unlucky in qualifying, but a strong race start brought him up three places to fourth in the early stages. It looked to be a strong position, holding off Latifi and Schumacher before pitting, losing time while changing tyres. The red flag might have ruined his podium chances, but the BWT Arden driver remained firm to Latifi’s eratic overtaking that had already seen him hit Schumacher at Mirabeau. In fact, due to the incidents ahead in the closing lap, Latifi could easily have left the weekend with more than 2 fastest lap points if he’d made the moves on Hubert stick.

As it was, the Frenchman pulled a De Vries, rocketing away in the early stages of race two and never looking back. Two safety cars did interrupt his proceedings and tyre fade (from the fact him and Deletraz had used up a second set due to race one’s red flag period) left him in a vulnerable position late on.

The four car fight for the win was taken by Hubert, but not after wheel spin in the final corner gave Deletraz the run to the line, going side-by-side just 0.059 seconds apart. Guanyu Zhou and Markelov would complete a top four seperated by less than 2 and a half seconds having broken away from the struggling Dorian Boccalacci, who’s fourth and fifth went largely unnoticed.

Deletraz lost the most due the stewarts mistakes of race one. The leading lapped car could only circle, finishing a distant seventh when he could have challenged for a podium, despite starting tenth. He started alongside Hubert in the second race, as fellow countryman Ralph Boschung added to the list of time penalties, eventually handing Hubert eighth. The Carlin driver remained in contention, hounding the GP3 champion throughout the closing laps of race two.

Credit as well goes to Zhou. The Chinese driver had started 16th in race one, lucking into the late pitstop gamble thanks to the red flags. He could easily have fallen back in race two, yet didn’t, moving into contention to take the win and withstanding the incredible pressure of Artem Markelov.

Markelov proved why he’s still the most exciting driver to watch, though the Monaco layout cursed him from actually showing off much of his overtaking prowess, even if we did see glimpses into the Chicane and a Rascasse. He ended up being beaten by another experience F2 driver, Sette Camara, who has done little to dampen his championship aspirations. Though like Ghiotto, Aitken and Zhou will need a strong weekend to catch up to the top two.