A very, very eventful Feature Race handed PREMA Racing a hard-fought podium finish, the second of the weekend, as the FIA Formula 2 Championship drew to a close in Monte Carlo.
Teams and drivers had a rollercoaster experience today, which started with the formation lap. Unfortunately, Sebastian Montoya stalled as the cars took off, and was brought back to the pitlane in a seemingly-compromised situation.
It all changed with a multi-car crash in the first corner, which unfortunately took Gabriele Minì out of contention after a strong start, and resulted in a lengthy red-flag situation. While the Italian was eventually forced to retire, the situation meant that not only Montoya could retake his place on the grid, but with the many retirements, he was going to restart in second place.
After staying in pursuit of the leader for the opening stages, a further crash caused another safety-car which prompted pit-stops, and one of the competitors, who could stop one lap earlier, was able to vault to the lead. A third and final crash caused the race to stop for good with a few minutes left on the clock.
Despite losing one position at the pit stop, Montoya was still able to bounce back to P3 as the competitor was deemed to have exceeded the pit-lane speed. It is the first podium in the series for the Colombian-American and the first for PREMA in a Feature Race this year.
The team is now looking forward to capitalizing on the progress made in the upcoming Barcelona event, which will wrap up the series' spring tripleheader.
#9 - Sebastian Montoya
"A rollercoaster of emotions today, but I'm really grateful for the end result. Thank you to the team, we did an amazing job to put ourselves in this position. We just need to try and figure out what happened in the formation lap for the next week, but besides that, it's really nice to have this kind of results and a bit of luck. Let's keep working hard and do the best we can."
#10 - Gabriele Minì
"Quite a short Feature Race. I got a really really good start, and I managed to get two positions straight away. There was a crash in T1 and I got blocked. I didn't have any damage but I just had to switch off the engine for the water temperature. Some got the chance to go back to the pit-lane, but I didn't. It is what it is."