» F2: Rowland takes maiden win, Leclerc hits trouble

Oliver Rowland took his maiden Formula 2 win in Saturday’s dramatic feature race in Monaco. The Briton took advantage of a Safety Car period and from technical issue encountered by local hero Charles Leclerc to take victory and cut Leclerc’s title lead to just three points.

Amid concerns over his clutch, Leclerc had a scruffy getaway from pole position but held fended off a better start by Alexander Albon to hold the lead in Sainte Devote. From there he built a gap to second-placed Albon as the pair exchanged fastest laps until Nicholas Latifi retired his car in the tunnel and brought out the Safety Car.

Albon quickly reacted by pitting for the Super Soft compound tyre, emerging in seventh while Leclerc opted to stay out. Now having to build a gap to Albon who was on the faster compound, Leclerc was on a mission, quickly pulling six seconds clear of Rowland and setting blistering lap times, before series returnee Robert Vișoiu and Louis Delétraz collided going into Mirabeau, ushering another Safety Car period.

PREMA was forced to react this time and pitted Leclerc just before the safety car procedure slowed the cars down, but his gap to Rowland was insufficient and he emerged in fourth behind Rowland, Artem Markelov and Nobuhara Matsushita, who had all pitted under Safety Car conditions and emerged ahead of the Monegasque driver.

To make matters worse for Leclerc, a suspension failure meant he was forced to stop for repairs and to retire a lap later. This meant that Rowland’s lead was only challenged by Markelov in second and after the Safety Car was pulled in, Rowland had to keep the Russian behind.

Markelov was unable to make a move, crossing the line just eight-tenths of a second behind an ecstatic Rowland, who managed to counter his traditional poor luck to a maiden victory at the season’s highest-profile race.

Matsushita’s calm and cunning drive carried him to a podium finish in third, ahead of Alexander Albon in fourth as the Thai’s strategy was compromised by the second safety car period.

Luca Ghiotto made use of a converse Super Soft/Soft strategy and a number of brazen overtaking moves to climb up to fifth, ahead of Gustav Malja in sixth, Nyck de Vries in seventh and Johnny Cecotto Jr. who will start Saturday’s Sprint Race from reversed-grid pole after finishing eighth.

Jordan King and Sergio Canamasas rounded up the top ten while PREMA is under investigation for release Leclerc’s car from the pits in an unsafe condition.

Rowland’s points tally from this race pus him on 74 points in the Drivers’ Championship, just three behind Leclerc’s 77, while Markelov sits third with 52 points.

The sprint race starts on Saturday at 16:10 local time (GMT +2).

2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship Race of Monaco – Feature Race Final Classification (41 laps)
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	41	1:00:46.545	27^
2.	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	41	+ 0.864	18
3.	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	41	+ 13.769	15
4.	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	41	+ 19.738	12
5.	Luca Ghiotto	Russian Time	41	+ 24.657	10
6.	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	41	+ 28.082	8
7.	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	41	+ 28.453	6
8.	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Rapax	41	+ 29.125	4
9.	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	41	+ 45.552	2
10.	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	41	+ 46.581	1
11.	Antonio Fuoco	PREMA Racing	41	+ 47.818
12.	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	41	+ 50.772
13.	Sean Galeal	Pertamina Arden	41	+ 53.964
14.	Nabil Jeffri	Trident	40	+ 1 lap
15.	Louis Delétraz	Racing Engineering	39	+ 2 laps
	Not Classified	Team / Entry	Laps	Result
DNF.	Sérgio Sette Câmara	MP Motorsport	33	Mechanical	4^
DNF.	Charles Leclerc	PREMA Racing	26	Suspension
DNF.	Norman Nato	Pertamina Arden	23	Mechanical
DNF.	Robert Vișoiu	Campos Racing	20	Collision
DNF.	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	6	Engine