AITKEN ADMITS WEAVING WAS ‘NAUGHTY’
Renault Formula 1 junior Jack Aitken admitted his weaving on the straights in the Monza Formula 2 sprint race was “a bit naughty” after rival Jordan King called it “dangerous”.
Aitken moved on the straights entering and exiting the Parabolica in order to break the slipstream tow to King as they battled for the lead, and earned the revived black and white ‘yellow card’ warning in the process.
King complained over team radio and after the race added: “Although the rule of the book says it is fine, it is dangerous.”
Aitken replied: “I think everyone knows that at this track the tow is quite powerful. I was maybe a bit naughty doing my weaving on the straight but I was just trying to break the tow and I was trying to make sure I was always stopping when people got close.”
Aitken went on to win the race, after retaking the lead from King following a virtual safety car restart.
The two both took to the run-off at the Variante della Roggia chicane later in the race, which handed Callum
Ilott second ahead of King.
But on the last lap Ilott locked up and spun at Turn 1 handing the position back to King.
Carlin’s Nobuharu Matsushita won the first race after Ilott’s challenge wilted when his tyres went off. Ilott had dedicated his pole position to Anthoine Hubert, who was killed in a Spa crash a week earlier in which Ilott’s Sauber Junior team-mate Juan Manuel Correa was also involved.
Correa’s condition worsened over the weekend as he contracted Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. He is listed as critical but stable in a London hospital.