Monza 2024, Sprint Race: Bearman leads Prema to victory | FP

Spectacular and duel-filled Sprint Race in Monza, concluded with a big smile for Oliver Bearman. The British driver from Prema, member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and future Haas driver in F1 for next season, returned to celebrate on the top step of the podium, hitting his second success of the season after the victory achieved in Austria, also in that case in a Sprint Race. On the podium Victor Martins and Joshua Durksenboth protagonists of great battles to conquer the top-3.

Race report

He would certainly have liked to be among the top three Andrea Kimi Antonelliespecially a few hours after the official announcement of his move to Mercedes for next season. However, the ‘Temple of Speed’ has not given the young driver from Bologna much satisfaction so far, at least as far as the results on the track are concerned: after the accident that occurred yesterday in FP1 in F1 with Mercedes, the Prema driver was innocently involved in a contact at the start between O’Sullivan and Goethe. Following the collision, Antonelli inevitably returned to the pits with a puncture to the left front wheel and damage to the front wing, rejoining the track after the stop in last position.

At the start, in the noble areas of the standings, Martì had managed to take the lead ahead of Fittipaldi and Martins, also taking advantage of a bad start by Cordeel, who slipped from second to fourth position. At the restart, after the Safety Car returned to the pit lane, the Spaniard went wide at the Prima Variante, temporarily handing over the lead to Fittipaldi before returning to the front of everyone already at the Roggia due to a mistake by the Brazilian, even outside the podium zone behind Martins and Bearman. From the 5th lap onwards, the top-3 underwent several changes, with Bearman jumping into the lead already on the seventh lap by overtaking Martins and taking advantage of a mistake by Martì, with the maneuvers completed in both cases at the Prima Variante. From that moment on, the Iberian driver first lost 2nd place to Martins and then slipped off the podium after fending off Durksen’s attacks, with the Paraguayan thus moving into third position. Until the checkered flag, the Monza circuit was the scene of an exciting battle for fourth place between Martì, Fittipaldi and Maloney. While the latter finished in fifth place behind Martì, with Crawford moving up to sixth ahead of Fittipaldi on the final lap, the Sprint of the Italian round did not prove particularly favorable to the leader of the standings Hadjar, only 10th and right behind his closest pursuer Gabriel Bortoleto, 8th at the finish line.

F2 / Italy 2024, Sprint Race: arrival order