Luke Browning seizes F2 championship lead after pivotal weekend in Monaco

He took fourth place on Sunday in a dramatic Feature Race that saw a third of the field decimated by a first corner incident and the action twice interrupted by the red flag.

Earlier in the weekend, Luke claimed the fifth podium of his debut F2 season, finishing third in the Sprint. Monaco is the race everyone wants to win, but Luke is keeping his eye firmly on the bigger prize and he knows the key to winning the title with such a competitive field of first and second-year talent is consistency, focusing on grid position, clean but committed races, and collecting maximum points at every opportunity.

Luke continued:

“There are still things we need to clean up but we’re doing a good job and I’m proud of the team.”

On the other side of the garage, Dino Beganovic endured a challenging event that could hardly have been more different to the last one in Imola, where he claimed Pole and a Feature Race podium. Just a few days on, his Monaco weekend got off to a challenging start when he qualified well down the field in a typically tight session where the times were close but grid position is even more decisive than usual.

On Saturday’s, he improved by two places from his eighth-row grid slot to finish P15, but it was always going to be difficult to gain further ground from the back of the pack in the Sprint Race.

Dino’s hopes rested on the Feature Race, where strategy could prove decisive, as could the typically high incidence of a Safety Car intervention.

That was certainly the case on Sunday morning, when no sooner had the race begun than a clash between Martins and Dunne precipitated a huge multi-car incident that ultimately took seven cars out of contention before the first-corner exit. The race was red-flagged and restarted after a significant delay to recover the stranded vehicles from St. Devote, and things were starting to look more favourable for Dino, and his teammate.

With the proceedings now running to time rather than laps, the Ferrari Academy driver’s early stop to switch from the Supersoft to the Soft tyre handed him a shot at the points-paying positions. He threw everything he had at the rest of his race, clocking the fastest lap and then one purple sector after another. Unfortunately, a small mistake into Casino punted him into the TecPro barriers on the other side of the track and a frustrating weekend on the Monte Carlo street circuit came to a crushing end.

Luke, on the prime strategy, had Maini looming large in his mirrors and when the DAMS driver pitted, the Williams Academy driver gambled on another Safety Car. When one came, he was able to make the strategy work and had moved into fourth place by the time the race was cut short by another incident that would require extensive barrier repairs. With the race running to a shortened length, column two points were awarded.

Luke’s combined weekend haul of 12 points puts him three points clear of Dunne at the top of the standings, while Hitech is now seven points clear the top of the Teams’ Standings.