Another swing in both title races: Monza Team-by-Team Round Up

Formula 2 returned from its summer break with a full throttle test as the drivers took the track at the historic Monza circuit for Round 11 of this 2024 season.
We witnessed two action-packed races that had some celebrating their successes while others were left looking for answers.
So, let us look back at how each team fared at the Temple of Speed this past weekend…
Having started off on the wrong foot, Invicta Racing and Gabriel Bortoleto put on a clinic across both races in Monza, claiming an emphatic victory in the Feature Race.
Having spun in Qualifying and left to start both races from the back of the field, the pace of Bortoleto and Invicta was outstanding, finishing in a tie for P8 in the Sprint before winning by nine seconds in the Feature.
Unfortunately for Kush Maini, the Safety Car intervention that helped Bortoleto, worked against him on the Mediums, as he wound up in P15. Despite that, Invicta are now the outright leaders in the Teams’ Standings.
For arguably the first time this year Campos looked off the pace in both races, despite Qualifying well with Hadjar in second and Josep María Martí in seventh.
The Spaniard had the lead of the Sprint Race but eventually finished fourth, although Hadjar was outside of the points.
They did not fare much better in the Feature, with Martí hitting the rear of Paul Aron’s car at the start of the race, causing both he and Hadjar to go off track. Both drivers fell down the order before finishing outside of the points.
A tough weekend for MP, as debutant Oliver Goethe found himself involved in an opening lap crash in the Sprint Race, before ending up P16 in the Feature.
Dennis Hauger tied with Bortoleto across the line to take 0.5 points in the Sprint but was spun around by Ritomo Miyata in the Feature, after also sustaining early front wing damage, knocking him out of the race.
On the bright side, their pace was strong with Hauger qualifying fourth while Goethe was P12 in his first showing, less than a tenth off reverse grid pole for the Sprint.
It was an unlucky end to the weekend for a team and driver who were fastest from the minute the cars hit the track for Free Practice on Friday.
Zane Maloney led both Practice and Qualifying and scored solid points in the Sprint. But he lost out under the Safety Car to Bortoleto on Sunday and just did not have enough to catch the Brazilian, leaving him second.
It was not the easiest weekend though for Miyata, who could not make his way through the field to the points after qualifying in P17.
Another team that left Italy questioning their luck was Hitech, who also showed tremendous pace in Qualifying with Aron third and Amaury Cordeel in P9.
Aron though suffered race ending contact with Maloney in the Sprint, while running the points, before being spun into a stop in the Feature by Martí on Lap 1, having looked set to take the lead into Turn 1.
Cordeel also struggled for race pace especially after suffering front wing damage from a collision with Jak Crawford in the Feature. Hitech remain in fifth place despite not scoring any points.
The Italian team’s second half of the season fightback continues with Oliver Bearman taking victory on home soil in the Sprint Race.
PREMA’s good form continued on Sunday with Andrea Kimi Antonelli finishing fourth while Bearman ended up in P7.
Impressively, both cars were constant fixtures inside the top 10 with Antonelli qualifying sixth and Bearman in eighth. A strong return home as they look to end the campaign on a high.
Things just did not fall in place for DAMS early on as they endured a tough Qualifying, where Crawford finished in P14 ahead of Juan Manuel Correa in P18.
But the former was able to show great race pace in both races to rescue some points, securing sixth in the Sprint and ninth in the Feature.
As for Correa, he just did not have enough pace to fight back on Saturday before retiring with damage on Sunday.
It was another strong performance for Victor Martins as he qualified fifth, helping him finish second in the Sprint Race, before scoring good points with a P6 result in the Feature.
For Zak O’Sullivan, the margins were tight in Qualifying as he ended up in P13, less than a tenth away from the top 10. He then retired with collision damage in the Sprint before taking the chequered flag in P13 on Sunday.
Despite a tough start, it wound up being a very good return home for Trident with Richard Verschoor taking advantage of the Safety Car intervention to finish third in the Feature after starting in P19.
As for Roman Stanek, he qualified in P20 and while he made progress in both races he did not get into the points.
VAR enjoyed a decent return to racing with Fittipaldi starting from reverse grid pole before going on to finish P7 in the Sprint and P10 in the Feature.
The solid points scoring continued in the other car as Rafael Villagómez fought from P16 to eighth on Sunday.
Joshua Duerksen was very impressive once more on Italian shores although he was disappointed to miss out on reverse grid pole to Fittipaldi by just 0.008s in P11.
However, he fought through to stand on the podium in the Sprint Race, before scoring more good points in the Feature in P5.
Debutant Niels Koolen finished at the back of the field in both races but would have learned a lot ahead of the next round in Baku as he gets to grip with F2 machinery.