Lawson takes Monaco F2 sprint race two victory in damp conditions
Lawson was the lead car on the grid after Marcus Armstrong suffered a technical issue on his way to pole position and was forced to start from the pit lane.
Lawson relinquished the lead to Oscar Piastri, who took an early lead in the lead Prema.
Piastri struggled to get to grips with the wet track and it was immediately apparent the reigning F3 champion didn’t have the pace to maintain the lead.
The Hitech driver made his move on Lap 5 - first, a late lunge into the Nouvelle Chicane, but both drivers were forced to cut the corner, allowing Piastri to remain ahead.
Lawson got through later on in the lap with an impressive overtake into La Rascasse.
The Red Bull-backed junior controlled the pace from the front to claim his second victory of the season.
Dan Ticktum finished second, having overtaken Piastri into the Nouvelle chicane on Lap 15.
Ticktum looked to be on course for the win at one point, reducing the gap to Lawson to under a second.
A late Safety Car didn’t ruin Lawson’s chances of the victory as he ran out a comfortable winner, over eight seconds clear of Ticktum in second.
Even though the track was drying considerably, very few opted to switch to dry tyres.
Piastri managed to cling onto the final podium spot, just ahead of Juri Vips.
Vips pulled off a stunning move on Theo Pourchaire into Mirabeau on Lap 24, just before the brief Safety Car period a lap later.
Bent Viscaal and David Beckmann’s contact into Turn 1 caused a Safety Car with five laps to go.
Vips pressured Piastri for the final podium spot but the Prema driver held on.
Pourchaire finished fifth ahead of Ralph Boschung, Richard Verschoor and Jehan Daruvala.
Jack Aitken finished tenth on his second race back in F2.
Robert Shwartzman finished 11th, having made a late switch to soft tyres.
Series leader Guanyu Zhou finished last of the classified runners after an optimistic switch to slicks on Lap 11.
The Chinese driver was ultimately lapped twice in a disappointing race.
Click here to find the full sprint race two results from Monaco.
