Miyata charges to P6 in Monaco Feature Race
Round 2 - Monaco - Report
Ritomo Miyata finished P6 in Sunday’s Monaco Feature Race, delivering Hitech’s best result of the FIA Formula 2 weekend around the streets of Monte Carlo and securing eight points.
The Monaco circuit proved as challenging as ever, with its tight layout and limited overtaking opportunities putting all the emphasis on track position and execution.
Saturday’s Sprint Race saw Miyata maintain his starting position to finish P11, while Colton Herta finished P15 from 14th on the grid.
Rounding out the weekend, both drivers ran the same strategy with long first stints on soft tyres before switching to supersofts, with Miyata finishing P6 in the Feature Race and Herta classified P19 following a post-race penalty.
HOW THINGS UNFOLDED
Qualifying
Miyata ran in Group A and set the sixth fastest time in his session after a red flag curtailed running in the closing stages.
Herta posted the seventh fastest time in Group B after briefly running at the top of the timesheets early in the session before the times converged in the final runs.
The combined result put them P11 and P14.
Sprint Race
Saturday afternoon’s 30-lap Sprint Race saw Miyata start P11 and Herta P14, with both drivers making early position changes on the opening lap before the field settled into a tightly-packed midfield train.
Miyata and Herta spent much of the race in traffic on the narrow streets of Monaco, ultimately finishing P11 and P15 respectively after being unable to make further progress.
Feature Race
Sunday morning’s 42-lap Feature Race saw Miyata line up P10 and Herta P13 on the grid following post-Sprint penalties through the field. Both drivers started on the Soft tyre and made good starts, Miyata holding position despite contact from Goethe at Sainte Devote.
They each ran long first stints on soft tyres before switching to supersofts, gaining track position as strategies started to unfold and late-stopping rivals came into the pits. As the final cycle played out, Miyata progressed to P6 and Herta to P7 after extending their stints longer than several rivals.
A Virtual Safety Car period added further energy to the closing stages of the race, with Miyata pitting at the end of lap 36, just as the neutralisation took effect, and rejoining just behind his teammate. He briefly ran as high as P5 in the closing stages before a battle with Maini and a move from Stenshorne dropped him back to P6 at the flag.
Herta made his final stop on lap 41, rejoining P16, before a post-race penalty dropped him to P19 in the final classification.
Ritomo Miyata:
“I'm very happy to come away with some good Feature Race points after a typically challenging weekend in Monaco. We made the best of the strategy today and that helped to gain four places, which isn't easy here, so a great job by the team.”
The next round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship takes place in just seven days’ time in Barcelona (12-14 June).
