Oliver Rowland won his first Formula 2 race at the prestigious Circuit de Monaco ahead of last year’s winner Artem Markelov and Nobuharu Matsushita. Local hero Charles Leclerc, who had been leading from pole position for the first half of the F2 feature race, retired with a suspension issue.

The race had a rocky beginning: the first start had to be aborted because Antonio Fuoco and Sean Gelael stalled their cars on the grid. After another formation lap, Charles Leclerc pulled away quickly, with Alexander Albon, Rowland, Matsushita, and Markelov in tow. All cars made it through the first corner intact, however; Sergio Canamasas and Nabil Jeffri came together in the famous hairpin corner and the Spaniard had to return to the pits for front wing repairs.

With little room for overtaking, the field calmed down quickly and the gaps between drivers began to stretch out. Leclerc controlled the race from the front, and the only change of position in the early stage of the race was Luca Ghiotto passing Johnny Cecotto Jr. for ninth place.

In lap six, just before the pit window opened, Nicholas Latifi stopped his DAMS car at the tunnel entrance. The Canadian had suffered an engine problem, and the safety car came out while the stricken car was removed by the marshals. Cecotto, Sergio Sette Camara, Albon, Ghiotto, Jeffri, Gustav Malja, Robert Visoiu, Nyck de Vries, and Ralph Boschung all used the opportunity to do their obligatory pitstop. While most of the drivers headed out on the prime tyre compound, Albon used an alternative strategy and rejoined the race on supersoft tyres in seventh place, just ahead of Ghiotto.

When the safety car came in again, Leclerc remained in the lead at the restart and quickly pulled away again from the pursuing Rowland, Matsushita, and Markelov while Albon came under pressure from Ghiotto. Leclerc set fastest lap after fastest lap to create a gap big enough to remain ahead of Albon, while Jordan King, running in fifth place, lapped slowly enough to hold up the drivers behind him.

Leclerc decided to pit in lap 20; however, in the same lap Louis Deletraz and Visoiu came together at the Mirabeau corner and the safety car had to step in for a second time. Rowland, Matsushita, and Markelov all profited from the safety car phase, so that they emerged from the pitlane ahead of Leclerc. After losing the race lead due to the bad timing of the pitstop, the bad luck for Leclerc continued: shortly after having stopped, the Prema Racing driver had to retire due to suspension problems.

With Leclerc now out of contention, it was Rowland who controlled the race until the checkered flag fell. Markelov tried to close in on the DAMS man, but Rowland managed to keep the gap to about one and a half seconds. The gap between the leaders and Matsushita increased slowly over the progress of the race, while Albon and Ghiotto continued their squabble over now fourth place.

Rowland crossed the finish line as the winner despite Markelov’s best effort, and the Russian had to settle for second place ahead of Matsushita. Albon withstood the pressure from Ghiotto and held on to fourth place. Malja finished the race in sixth place ahead of Nyck de Vries. De Vries will start from the front row alongside Cecotto, who claimed reversed grid pole position together with his eighth place. King held on to ninth place ahead of Canamasas.