Driver Academy report: Ollie Gray leads our charge with another podium

The Williams Driver Academy were back on track this weekend as Formula 2 joined F1 for the Spain and Monaco double-header. Meanwhile, our British F4 hopeful took to Thruxton for the third round of the championship.

A tough Friday meant points were at a premium for Roy Nissany and Logan Sargeant in Monte Carlo, but Ollie Gray grabbed another podium for his F4 campaign in Hampshire.

It might have been Logan's first visit to race around Monaco since his 2018 Formula Renault days, but our American driver took two top ten finishes over the weekend.

Friday's qualifying session saw Logan in Group B, as the championship divided the F2 runners into two sessions.

Logan sat in P2 with five minutes to go but slipped to P7 as the clock ran down. When gearing up for one final run, a massive crash for Jake Hughes triggered a red flag, preventing any possibility for improvement.

The stoppage meant our American racer qualified a net P14 after the stewards applied penalties to others post-qualifying.

A relatively uneventful Sprint Race had Logan jump to P11 from the start as Hughes stalled. The Carlin driver kept his car on the road while some rivals made mistakes to cross the line P10, just two places away from the points.

The Feature Race was more fun for Logan, who sat in P12 after defending his position on the first lap, but he made it to P11 after the pit stops. With five laps to go, Logan overtook Ayumu Iwasa for tenth and then used the superior grip on his hard tyres to overtake Calan Williams for P9 and score two points.

After scoring his first F2 podium at Monaco in 2021, it wasn't as memorable a trip to the principality for Roy this year as his record of taking points in every race weekend ended in Monaco.

Like Logan, he was in Group B for qualifying, and although he sat atop the 11-driver stack halfway through the session, he had dropped to P7 when Jake Hughes' crash brought out the red flags.

The Sprint Race offered few overtaking opportunities for any driver, so Roy kept his head down and turned in the laps. With Hughes stalling on the start line and Felipe Drugovich attempting an ill-fated gamble on wet tyres, the DAMS driver reached P9 by the chequered flag, just one position away from the points.

The Feature Race, however, was one to forget. An issue on the formation lap meant Roy had to start from the pit lane. He received penalties for two procedure infringements during the race before finally retiring from P20 on Lap 17.

After bagging a triple podium at the last round in Brands Hatch, Ollie continued his championship momentum by scoring another top-three finish at Thruxton, although a DNF in Race 3 slightly soured a generally positive weekend.

While Alex Dunne and Ugo Ugochukwu duelled for the lead in Race 1, Ollie drove a sensible race to defend from teammate Louis Sharp on Lap 1 and held his position until the flag for a fifth consecutive podium appearance.

The reverse grid Race 2 meant Ollie would start ahead of his title rival Dunne who had qualified on pole. The Irishman kept our Academy driver busy with overtaking attempts and side-by-side running throughout the race. Still, Ollie held his nerve to keep Dunne behind while simultaneously progressing up to P4, just four seconds off the podium.

Unfortunately, the point-scoring streak came to an end in Race 3 when Eduardo Coseteng rear-ended Ollie on the opening lap. Ollie couldn't keep his car on the track throughout Lap 1 and would eventually retire after running one lap down.

Ollie sits P3 in the championship, 11 points behind Ugochukwu in second, while Dunne extends his lead to 39 points.

F2 will join F1 in Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from 10-12 June, meaning Roy and Logan will be back in action in two weeks. Ollie will also be racing that weekend as British F4 heads to Oulton Park for Round 4 of the championship.