2021 Monaco Feature Race

The 2021 Monaco Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2021 Monaco Formula 2 Race 3, was the sixth race of the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo, Monaco, on 22 May 2021. The race would see Théo Pourchaire create F2 history by becoming the youngest ever pole sitter and race winner in the history of the second tier of the FIA's single-seater ladder, as the Frenchman led all bar five laps of the race.

Qualifying would see Pourchaire secure pole position, beating Robert Shwartzman by four tenths of a second, as they both topped their respective qualifying groups. Row two would be shared by Oscar Piastri and Dan Ticktum, with the grid set by the two qualifying groups with Group A's drivers on the right side and Group B's on the left.

With the circuit completely dry after Saturday morning's Sprint Race the race got underway, with Pourchaire easing into the lead from pole. Shwartzman went with him and duly secured second, with the rest of the field getting away largely in grid order as everyone bar Jack Aitken made it through Sainte Devote unhindered.

Aitken was left stranded on the grid after an issue, although his car was recovered to the pitlane without intervention from the Safety Car, allowing Pourchaire and Shwartzman to set about building a gap. Indeed, the #1 Prema would be tucked neatly under the #10 ART's rear wing throughout the early stages, as those two eased clear of Piastri behind.

With the top eight in the field having elected to start on the soft tyre the lead driver on ultra-softs, Felipe Drugovich, opted to make a gamble and come in and change his tyres very early on lap ten. The Brazilian racer rejoined ahead of Alessio Deledda down in sixteenth, although he would quickly begin matching the pace of the leaders without pushing his fresh soft tyres too hard.

From that moment the race became a tactical battle, with Pourchaire and Shwartzman running 40 seconds ahead of Drugovich, while the Brazilian slowly crept back up the field as others stopped. In between, Ticktum would try to undercut Piastri for third but, after rejoining in fifth just ahead of the warmed up Drugovich, was powerless to prevent Piastri remaining ahead of him when the Australian stopped a lap later.

Shwartzman would also try the undercut in a bid to pass Pourchaire, although a mess of a stop by Prema on lap 30 saw the Russian racer lose time and slip back behind Ticktum, ending his hopes of victory. Pourchaire, meanwhile, would stop a lap later and scramble back out ahead of the #4 Virtuosi in second, handing the lead to Guanyu Zhou, the last driver to stop.

Zhou was taking the opposite gamble to his teammate, running his soft tyres for as long as they could before making a very late switch to the ultrasofts with five laps to go. His stop came after three quick-fire Virtual Safety Cars for Marcus Armstrong, Lirim Zendeli and Ticktum finding the barriers on successive laps, the latter's accident coming when he misjudged a lunge at Piastri for fourth.

Once Zhou stopped Pourchaire was left in control of the race, with the Frenchman going on to claim his maiden F2 victory at the age of just 17 years 280 days. Piastri secured second ahead of Drugovich, Shwartzman secured fourth ahead of a charging Zhou, who recorded the fastest lap on the final tour, while Ralph Boschung secured sixth. Liam Lawson was next up ahead of Jüri Vips and Roy Nissany, while Richard Verschoor signed off on what would potentially be his last F2 appearance in tenth.

Background
There were no changes made to the field or the Circuit de Monaco for the third race of the weekend, which was to be staged after qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. The grid would be set according to the results of F2's own qualifying session, which was staged on 20 May 2021 on the Thursday before the race weekend.

Sprint Shuffles
In the Drivers' Championship Guanyu Zhou had managed to retain his position at the head of the field, and had even managed to retain something of a comfortable margin over his closest challengers. Indeed, Monaco Sprint 2 winner Dan Ticktum had only been able to close the gap to the Chinese ace to eighteen points after the fifth race of the season, with third placed Oscar Piastri a further four behind. Liam Lawson was left to rue his disqualification as he slipped to fourth and failed to make ground in the early stages of the title hunt, while Jehan Daruvala completed the top five.

UNI-Virtuosi had retained the lead in the Teams' Championship despite failing to score in the second Monegasque sprint, although their advantage had been severely reduced. Indeed, Carlin had cut the gap to the leaders to three points ahead of the Feature Race, while behind Prema Racing had also moved closer to the leaders in third. The Italian squad themselves had moved back ahead of Hitech Grand Prix to complete the top three, with ART Grand Prix rounding out the top five.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:
 * * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.

Qualifying
Qualifying used the well established format for the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday. All 22 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of either compound of Pirelli tyres.

Group A
As usual for F2's trip to Monte Carlo the field would be split into two groups, with Group A the first to venture onto the circuit featuring all drivers with even-numbered cars after a pre-session ballot. First of the eleven even drivers to enter the circuit would be Jüri Vips and Felipe Drugovich, who duly went on to set the initial pace with their first flying laps of the sixteen minute session. Drugovich's lap was all the more impressive as it also featured a brush against the barriers which the Brazilian racer survived, with drivers setting another flying lap after a cool down.

The second batch of laps saw Vips emerge on the top of the pile again, as the majority of the drivers improved into the 1:21.000s on their second runs. However, all eleven drivers would have the opportunity to have a third run before the end of Group A's time slot, although Vips' hopes of pole were dented when he clipped the wall on his third run. That opened the door for Théo Pourchaire to secure provisional pole, with the #10 ART finding half a second to go fastest with a 1:20.985, while Oscar Piastri moved up to second ahead of Vips.

Group B
Group B would feature those with odd numbered cars head out of the pits for a sixteen minute session, with a theoretical advantage due to track evolution. However, their first round of laps would not be as impressive as Group A's, with Group B pace setter Guanyu Zhou more than a second off after the first runs. A poor middle sector on his second run would result in Zhou fail to improve, allowing Robert Shwartzman to seize the initiative in the #1 Prema, setting a new Group B benchmark, albeit still some way off of Pourchaire's earlier mark.

The third runs would coincide with a spike in the track temperature, meaning drivers would find their tyres overheating towards the end of their final runs in Group B. Regardless, Dan Ticktum would briefly top the Group with a 1:21.589, before Shwartzman stole back top spot in Group B with a 1:21.403, still four tenths off of Pourchaire. Ticktum would still finish the session in second in the Group, meaning he would start from fourth on the grid, while at the bottom of the pile Alessio Deledda became the first driver since Ricardo Teixeira in 2009 to fall foul of the 107% rule in a dry qualifying session.

After the session Deledda was granted permission to start the race after meeting with the stewards of the meeting.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * Positions highlighted in blue denotes the driver qualified in Group A.
 * * The grid order was based on the results of each group separately, with the odd numbered cars on one side, and even numbered drivers starting on the opposite side.
 * † Deledda failed to set a time within 107% of the fastest lap in his group, but was allowed to start at the stewards' discretion.

Grid

 * * Petecof started the race from the pitlane due to damage sustained after the 2021 Monaco Sprint Race 2.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Vips would serve a five second time penalty for causing a collision with Armstribg.
 * † Lundgaard and Daruvala served five second time penalties for speeding in the pitlane.
 * ‡ Petecof served a five second time penalty and one penalty point on his licence for exceeding track limits on multiple occasions. Petecof would also have two penalty points added to his licence after causing a collision with Daruvala.

Milestones

 * 50th race for Roy Nissany.
 * Marcus Armstrong, Jehan Daruvala, Felipe Drugovich, Guilherme Samaia and Robert Shwartzman entered their 30th race.
 * Théo Pourchaire made his tenth F2 appearance.
 * Maiden pole position for Pourchaire.
 * Pourchaire became the youngest ever pole sitter in GP2/F2 history aged 17 years 278 days.
 * Maiden victory for Pourchaire.
 * Pourchaire became the youngest ever race winner in GP2/F2 history aged 17 years 280 days.
 * Also Pourchaire's first podium finish.
 * ART Grand Prix secured their win as an entrant.
 * Also ART's 65th win at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
Guanyu Zhou would end the trip to Monte Carlo with his Championship lead intact after claiming fifth and fastest lap in the Monaco Feature Race, a result which left the Chinese ace on 68 points for the campaign. Oscar Piastri was his closest challenger in second, sixteen off the lead and the best rookie in the field, five ahead of fellow rookie and race winner Théo Pourchaire after his maiden triumph. Dan Ticktum was next up ahead of Liam Lawson, the third rookie in the top five, while pre-season favourite Robert Shwartzman found himself in sixth, with less than half the points of the early leader.

In the Teams' Championship UNI-Virtuosi would retain their early lead in the title hunt, the British squad having moved to within three points of the 100 point mark after the first six races of the campaign. That left them fifteen clear of Prema Racing in second, with the defending Champions themselves having moved ahead of Carlin after their biggest single-race score of the season to that point. ART Grand Prix were next up in fourth ahead of Hitech Grand Prix, with the top five all having more than double the points of MP Motorsport in sixth.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.