Frustrating Monza weekend ends without reward

Qualifying

Hitech faced a difficult Qualifying session at Monza, leaving the team with significant ground to make up across both races.

Michael Shin led the line-up in 22nd, with Fionn McLaughlin 26th and Jin Nakamura 29th.

Sprint Race

The 18-lap Sprint Race proved to be a frantic affair, with multiple incidents and Safety Car periods reshaping the order.

Shin made strong progress in the early stages and led the Hitech charge before his race ended on Lap 10.

Following an incident further ahead and smoke from Clerot’s car, visibility was difficult. Shin was taken out on Lap 10 after Gerrard Xie’s car rode over his Hitech, bringing out the Safety Car. Both drivers were later confirmed to be okay.

Jin continued to make progress after the restart, moving past BHI and KLE before climbing to 13th. He later battled Théophile Nael, reaching 11th before contact dropped him back to 12th.

Jin fought back to 11th on the penultimate lap, but Nael and James Wharton passed him on the final lap, leaving him 13th at the flag.

Fionn also fought his way forward to finish 15th.

Feature Race

The 22-lap Feature Race again demanded patience and opportunism from the Hitech drivers.

Fionn was caught up in an early incident on Lap 2 when the field bunched together through the tight Turn 1–2 section following an incident further ahead. With nowhere to go, he ran into the back of Xie.

Despite the setback, Fionn produced one of the strongest recoveries of the race, gaining 12 places from P26 to finish P14.

Jin also made steady progress from 29th, moving up to 19th after the restart before reaching 13th by Lap 12.

His progress was interrupted on Lap 13 when he unfortunately made a mistake running wide through the final corner and onto the gravel. He dropped out of the top 10 fight and down the order. Jin avoided the wall and continued.

A Safety Car on Lap 14 brought the field back together, giving Jin another opportunity to recover positions with limited time remaining. He continued to work his way forward but ultimately dropped to P21 on the final lap.

Michael was running P24 late in the race when he became involved in another incident with Fernando Barrichello through the Turn 1–2 chicane on Lap 18. He was able to continue and finished P23.

Paul continued:

“Michael made a strong start to the weekend and was leading the Hitech charge in the Sprint before being taken out, so it was disappointing to see his race end that way. Unfortunately, the Turn 1–2 chicane was also difficult for him again in the Feature Race.

“Jin showed some very good recovery pace from the back of the grid in both races, and Fionn’s drive from P26 to P14 in the Feature was particularly encouraging. Both drivers showed good determination to keep fighting when opportunities appeared.

“We obviously wanted more from Monza, particularly in terms of results, but there are positives we can take from the weekend. We now have one final race at the Madring, and we’ll be focused on finishing the season strongly.”