Leading the world championship, Théo Pourchaire approached the penultimate race weekend with the advantage of pole position. The driver from Grasse had a 14-point lead before the two races at Monza this weekend.
Since the first race weekend, Théo Pourchaire had not experienced the joys of pole position. This weekend at Monza, the driver from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region corrected this anomaly, managing to stand out in a chaotic final lap. A valuable advantage especially because Frederik Vesti only qualified in seventh position.
With the reverse grid system for the sprint race, Théo Pourchaire started in tenth place. Far behind his championship rival who began in third position. At the start, the latter quickly took the lead of the race while Théo Pourchaire made a very aggressive start.
Very fast on the straights and confident in braking phases, the driver of ART GP No. 5 easily passed his opponents. He overtook six cars in just 21 laps, thus achieving the best rise in the standings (4th). Difficult to do better, but the Frenchman minimized the damage in the championship by losing only five points.
Vesti makes a mistake
This morning at the start of the long race, it was Théo Pourchaire with the advantage of his pole position. His championship rival Frederik Vesti had to make a significant comeback to limit the loss of points. If the start went well, Théo Pourchaire lost the lead of the race before the Ascari chicane to Oliver Bearman. The teammate of Frederik Vesti played the team game by attempting to deprive the Frenchman of a few points. However, right behind, an aggressive Vesti was squeezed by Roman Staněk, sending him onto the grass. The Dane hit the wall and saw his race end at turn 4. A major setback for him in terms of title hopes.
Out front, after three safety car interventions, Théo Pourchaire navigated between second and third position with the pit stop strategy. The driver from Grasse managed to reclaim second place by getting past Jack Doohan ahead of him. Leading the race, Oliver Bearman had a significant gap. A gap reduced to nothing after another Safety Car intervention. The ultimate chance for Théo Pourchaire to go for victory and take maximum points from Frederik Vesti.
On the defensive, the driver from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region was overtaken on the restart by Ayumu Iwasa and his soft tires. Without taking risks, the Frenchman secured third place and thus gained a 26-point lead over Frederik Vesti, which is more than a race victory’s lead in a long race.
We will have to wait until November 26 in Abu Dhabi to know the outcome of this 2023 F2 championship.
