Thanks to a fantastic performance yesterday, it's OSM's Matthews who starts on pole for the Monaco Million alongside K8ley's Domenicalli, both looking to cause a major upset. It's a rather cool day, temperatures only hitting slightly above 10 degrees. As a result, most of the field opted for softs. 9 went for mediums, most noticably Maxwell, along with both Highwinds, Yoshida, Vocquelin, Ostberg, Nakumaya, Einarsson and Bruner. Only Bergkvist and Garcia tried their hands at the hards. Matthews and Domenicalli got off the line cleanly, but Maxwell struggled on his medium tyres and dropped down rapidly. Cesar quickly moved into third and Taylor into fourth as he squeezed between his teammate and Maxwell, the former getting ahead of the latter as well. Taylor continued to show good pace, passing Cesar on lap 5 and Domenicalli on lap 9 to move into second. Maxwell was continuing to drop back though, ceding sixth to his teammate Zozulya before the Ukranian overtook Hutchinson for fifth. Thunder had a fantastic start, making up 4 places, while Hudson made up 2. Other medium drivers however were noticably slipping back.
By lap 15 Cesar was past Domenicalli and joined a three way fight for the lead. Taylor was almost through on Matthews on the inside of the Lowes hairpin but had to back out - allowing Cesar past through the tunnel. He then pulled off a stylish move at La Rascasse on Matthews into turn 1 to take the lead, Taylor following past 2 laps later to drop Matthews down to third. Medium shod cars continued to struggle - Maxwell and Klien lost to Hudson and Zvironas respectively, while Ellington and Yoshida were rapidly falling out of the points. Notably, Zhao put in an outrageous divebomb on Thunder at the chicane, somehow making it stick. Taylor stuck with Cesar and was back past on lap 25, having pressurised the Maserati into a mistake. That was 5 laps before the soft runners dove in for their first pit stop - the leading pair emerged behind Maxwell, but Matthews had a sticky wheel nut. He dropped positions to Domenicalli and Zozulya, though not Hutchinson: who also had a slow pit stop and fell behind Hudson. Thunder meanwhile became the race's first retirement when she hit the inside of the pit entry and damaged her car beyond repair. With Hutchinson out of the way, Zozulya was looking fiesty. He easily passed Domenicalli before rushing up to Cesar - despite facing a stern defense, the Downton driver was past and into second by lap 36. Hudson had also overtaken Matthews, who's teammate, Stokey, joined Thunder on the sidelines with a power unit issue. Hutchinson was next when he crashed on lap 41, bringing out the safety car. The medium runners had to pit under it, dropping them all right to the back. As a result, Taylor led from Zozulya, Cesar, Domenicalli, Hudson, Matthews and Zvironas. Behind them, plenty benefitted hugely from the hit the medium runners took - Zhao, Agostino and Holzberg rounded out the top 10, Davies, McLaughlin, Kasami, van Snelheid and Bergkvist completing the points. The race restarted on lap 46, and Taylor was under pressure from Zozulya. With Cesar running closely as well, Taylor locked up into turn 6, allowing Zozulya to slip past and Cesar to put in a cheeky move into Portier 3 corners later. Hudson was also enjoying things as he passed Domenicalli at the chicane, while it was less steller for Matthews as he lost out to Zvironas. McLaughlin was quick to dispatch of slower cars as he move into ninth, while Haugland and Ledesma overtook Bergkvist for 15th and 16th. As the race approached 3/4 distance, things began to level out at the front, bar Matthews forcing his way back past Zvironas at the penultimate corner. Further back, there was a chaotic battle for eighth that nearly ended in tears. McLaughlin tried to shove his nose up the inside of Zhao at Casino square and had to back out, surprising Agostino who only just avoided taking out the New Zealander. Davies swooped past the pair, while Holzberg passed Agostino, before the Renault man also overtook Zhao a lap later. The final set of pit stops for the soft runners came on lap 60, with no changes to the order. Maxwell was promoted to only 13th, Bergkvist to 15th. With the top 3 streaking away, Hudson and Domenicalli squabbled for fourth, the Italian retaking the place on lap 69 as Matthews and Zvironas began to close in. Agostino retook tenth from Holzberg, van Snelheid moved himself up into the points in 13th thanks to some neat moves on Maxwell and Kasami, and Bergkvist dropped out of points contention on fading hards. Ledesma also put in a move on Yoshida on lap 78, to move into 19th, while Garcia retired with fading brakes. As the race neared it's end, the action started to get a bit more lively. Taylor had caught back up to Cesar in second and repaid his rival with an aggressive move into Portier to snatch second off of him. Domenicalli was struggling behind on old tyres - he was powerless to keep Hudson back and while he fended off Matthews, the Briton grabbed fifth on the last lap through the tunnel. Zhao also signed off his most competitive weekend yet with a move on Davies to grab eighth at the death, Agostino also moving past McLaughlin late on for another top 10 finish. The biggest surprise came from Ledesma putting in a mini overtaking masterclass - in the last 10 laps he stormed past Ellington, Ostberg, Klien, Kasami and Maxwell to make it a double points finish for Lamborghini. But at the front, it was an empathic win for Zozulya after his struggles yesterday, as he also took home the fastest lap. Taylor and Cesar completed the podium, the former's first since Macau and only the second top three finish for the latter. Hudson continued racking up points finishes with fourth, Matthews capped off a fantastic weekend with fifth and sixth was still Domenicalli's first points finish. Zvironas finished seventh, Zhao eighth, Davies ninth and Agostino tenth. Eleventh was a decent recovery for McLaughlin, ahead of Holzberg, van Snelheid, Ledesma and Maxwell, who salvaged a point from an awful race for anyone not on softs.
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