Martinius Stenshorne won this Sunday (24) a hectic main race of the Formula 2 third round, held at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Montreal, Canada. The Rodin Motorsport driver capitalized on a race marked by crashes and errors from the leading rivals to take the lead and leave with the victory.
Second place went to Alexander Dunne, Stenshorne’s teammate. The podium was completed by Gabriele Mini, the championship leader and third-placed finisher in the race with a MP Motorsport car. Nikola Tsolov, driving for Campos Racing, crossed the finish line in fourth despite a spin, while Sebastian Montoya finished fifth after spinning during the battle with Prema.
Cian Shields, in an AIX Racing car, finished sixth, just ahead of Nico Varrone, seventh with Van Amersfoort. Colton Herta, for Hitech, finished eighth, with Mari Boya in ninth. The top ten was completed by Kush Maini.
The Brazilians did not fare well. Rafael Câmara spun while contesting a position in the top five. After losing a few laps, the Invicta Racing driver finished 14th, outside the points. Emmo Fittipaldi, fifth in Saturday’s race, retired after skidding off the track while returning from the pits in an AIX Racing car.
The race featured Safety Car deployments. The first came on lap five, when Laurens van Hoepen, who led the race, hit the wall of champions with his Trident car, ending his race. On lap 8, it was Emmo Fittipaldi, coming out from the pits, who crashed into the wall after skidding with the AIX Racing car. In the pits, John Bennett and Rafael Villagómez collided.
In a move that did not trigger a yellow flag across the circuit, Nikola Tsolov spun while trying to overtake rivals who had not yet stopped in the pits, dropping down the order. Then, on lap 17, Villagómez retired from the race and pulled the car over, triggering the Virtual Safety Car.
On lap 23, Rafael Câmara spun his Invicta car while contesting a position with Roman Bilinski, but the battle continued without a full neutralization. Four laps later, Dino Beganovic’s DAMS car developed a problem, forcing the Swede to retire in Montreal. The Safety Car returned to the track and, a lap later, Mari Boya went off the track.
The race went to a timed finish due to the incidents and a new Safety Car entry occurred with two minutes remaining, when Oliver Goethe collided with his MP Motorsport car after being touched by an opponent following a lock-up. The neutralization ended the race.
The next Formula 2 round will be contested from June 4 to 7 on the street circuit laid out in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
