O’Sullivan took an unthinkable F2 win on the Monaco streets having started from 15th on the gird after a late incident involving Zane Maloney and Joshua Durksen flipped the script.
Hadjar had been on course to take the victory after controlling proceedings following Richard Verschoor’s mid-race retirement, but he was left furious and not wanting to speak to anyone after seeing O’Sullivan emerge from the pits ahead.
Knowing that the only chance of points on Sunday was a late safety car intervention or similar, ART had left O’Sullivan out until lap 40 on the soft tyres, and this gamble was rewarded in the most dramatic way as he became the eighth different winner of the season.
Despite Hadjar’s fury, the Frenchman moves to second in the championship, with third-placed Paul Aron now hitting the summit as a result of Maloney’s non-score.
The start of an F2 feature race is more often than not a more tranquil affair than the sprint outing, with drivers safe in the knowledge that pit strategy and safety cars could elevate them up the order.
This was largely in evidence on Sunday, aside from a moment of minor contact between Jak Crawford and Invicta driver Kush Maini at the Grand Hotel hairpin, which put the former out.
The start had also provided the latest nightmare in a difficult season for Alpine-backed Victor Martins. Having topped his qualifying group to line up second on the grid, the ART driver bogged down and dropped like a stone to P15 within moments of the lights going out.
But the real drama came in lap 19 when Richard Verschoor reported an ultimately race-ending problem while leading the race. The issue appeared to be limiting the power output of his Trident entry and, although able to retain his position until the pit stops, he was swamped by Hadjar, Paul Aron and the rest of the field shortly after returning to the track.
Having hopped the Nouvelle Chicane his defence against Aron, Verschoor was handed a five-second penalty, which he served before completing a final tour and pitting to retire.
A further post-race investigation was announced after he removed the steering wheel and threw it from the car before coming to a stop in the pits.
Also in the pitstop phase, Prema pairing Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman provided some close-quarters action, running wheel-to-wheel after the former returned to the track. Ultimately, Bearman sealed the position with a cutback manoeuvre at the Grand Hotel hairpin.
Having followed Franco Colapinto for some time, Antonelli was again at the centre of the action on lap 37, when he launched a bold move on the MP Motorsport driver into Antony Noghes to climb into then eighth place.
Then came the twist in the tale on lap 40, when O’Sullivan on the alternate strategy was gifted a free stop with Maloney and Durksen coming together as the latter returned to the track from his own stop.
Having entered the pits before the VSC was called, O’Sullivan’s stop was deemed legal and allowed the ART driver to steal victory from Hadjar in the most dramatic of circumstances.
Monaco - Feature race
|
1
-
2
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cla | Driver | # | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Pits | Points | Retirement | Bonus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix |
2 | 42 |
- |
25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |  I. Hadjar Campos Racing |
20 | 42 |
+0.500 0.5 |
0.500 | 18 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 |
P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight
|
17 | 42 |
+8.000 8.0 |
7.500 | 15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | O. Bearman Prema Powerteam |
3 | 42 |
+9.100 9.1 |
1.100 | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 |  J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil |
8 | 42 |
+9.500 9.5 |
0.400 | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 |  D. Hauger MP Motorsport |
11 | 42 |
+9.900 9.9 |
0.400 | 8 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 |  A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam |
4 | 42 |
+17.500 17.5 |
7.600 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 |
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
|
10 | 42 |
+17.800 17.8 |
0.300 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | V. Martins ART Grand Prix |
1 | 42 |
+18.000 18.0 |
0.200 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 |  Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport |
5 | 42 |
+26.500 26.5 |
8.500 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| View full results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
