Mercedes Formula 1 junior George Russell extended his Formula 2 championship lead, beating Russian Time’s Artem Markelov to victory in the Monza sprint race.
Both Russell and Renault F1 development driver Markelov made up significant ground at the start of the race, climbing from sixth and seventh on the grid respectively to second and third.
Markelov demonstrated the strongest pace early on, passing initial race-leader Nicholas Latifi. Russell eventually cleared the DAMS driver, after having locked-up during an earlier attempt at Turn 1, but was 1.4 seconds adrift of Markelov.
The Russian Time driver, who finished second in Saturday’s sprint race, locked up at Turn 1 at the mid-way point in the race. Taking to the run-off area, Markelov lost momentum and Russell was able to cruise passed through the sweeping Curva Grande to take the lead.
Markelov’s fightback was blunted as the team diagnosed an engine issue which affected his top speed on the straights.
While Russell was able to hold on to take victory by just over a second, Markelov faced increased pressure from Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara late on.
However, Camara’s last lap attack was curtailed when he locked up at the first corner, narrowly avoiding the back of Markelov’s car and taking to the run-off area. He settled for third.
Russell’s chief championship rival Lando Norris could only manage fifth place. After a poor start from third on the grid, the McLaren reserve driver slipped to eighth by the end of the opening lap.
He recovered to fifth place, narrowly missing out on fifth after challenging Latifi on the final lap of the race.
Norris had battled with Latifi’s DAMS team-mate Alexander Albon early on. However, Albon suffered an engine cutout problem which significantly reduced his power in third gear. He rapidly slid from fifth place and eventually retired.
Albon has now fallen to 43 points behind Russell but has held onto third in the championship. Russell’s lead over second-placed Norris is now up to 22 points.
Luca Ghiotto finished the race in a distant sixth, 17 seconds behind the race winner.
MP Motorsport’s Dorian Boccolacci earned his first F2 points with a seventh-place finish after starting in 18th in only his second weekend in the series.
He climbed through the field alongside Russell’s ART Grand Prix team-mate Jack Aitken, who finished in eighth place from 17th on the grid.
Antonio Fuoco was disqualified from Saturday’s feature race after having used a non-compliant throttle map on his Charouz Racing System-prepared machine at the start.
Instead of starting on reverse grid pole, Fuoco was last on the grid and charged to 10th place.
Ralph Boschung was the chief beneficiary of Fuoco’s penalty, as he inherited pole. However, a poor start meant that he instantly slipped to ninth on the opening lap.
He later retired from the race after making heavy wheel-to-wheel contact with Prema Racing’s Sean Gelael at the Della Roggia chicane.
Feature race winner Tadasuke Makino was unable to replicate his Saturday pace and finished in 14th.
